Flight of the Conchords New Zealand has raised the standard on comedy, bringing in completely new and entirely different ways to make audiences everywhere crack a smile. With the help of various instruments and two very distinct voices (Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement), Flight of the Conchords has set an example to the rest of the comedic world. One of the most prominent things that makes Flight of the Conchords one of the most interesting and intriguing comedic duos is the fact that all of their songs reflect a wide array of genres of music. You can hear their song “Prince of Parties,” a very strange renaissance-type song, then play something like “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros,” which is a rap/folk song. The very eclectic variety of sounds makes this band comedic because of their ability to maintain a focus on their specific witty, stereotypical and farce humor that their fans love and expect, while tapping into all sorts of different music. They seem to have this uncanny ability to sing in the style of Simon and Garfunkel, then a Hip-Hop jam, then a classic folk song while focusing the lyrics on reoccurring themes like women, love and humor.
One of the main “stereotypes” of music they commonly depict is a love song/serenade. There are numerous hits where the lyrics focus on complimenting and wooing women--songs like “The Most Beautiful Girl” and “If You’re Into It.” What makes these songs funny, however, is the complete lack of romanticism in their “love songs”. In “The Most Beautiful Girl,” there is the lyric “You’re so beautiful you could be a part-time model…but you’ll probably still have to keep your normal job” and “…When you’re on the street, depending on the street, I bet you are definitely in the top three good-looking girls on the street.” Not really the most flattering and well-executed pick-up lines ever imagined. The entire song “If You’re Into It” is a classic swing-and-a-miss type of flattery. The song starts out genuine and cute, but quickly takes a turn for the creepy when Bret starts to let her know what he’s “into” and if she is “into it.” There is a sense of sexuality in songs like these, but what makes them really funny is the almost childish execution. Their lyrics almost insult the person they are intending to flatter, and it takes a completely satirical spin on a love song. It’s like they have an assumption that as long as they write a song for this girl, she will fall in love with them.
With or without love themes, ladies are a big deal to Bret and Jemaine and are definitely a big factor in their music. Some of the best examples of the importance of women to FOTC are “We’re Both in Love with a Sexy Lady” and “Carol Brown”. In “We’re Both in Love,” Bret and Jemaine meet a lady while jogging, and both instantly fall for her. After meeting her, they each divulge their recent “relationships” and discover their talking about the same girl. They begin arguing about who this lady, (who Jemaine believes is “Barbra” and Bret believes is “BrahBrah,”) liked more, and digress into a hilarious fight about whose knees she was checking out. “Carol Brown,” on the other hand, is a love song Jemaine sings for his new girlfriend. The song is about all his past relationships and why they didn’t work out. This is funny to listeners because between this long lists of ladies, there is a chorus of Jemaine’s exes singing about how awful he is. The contrast is humorous because Jemaine is trying so hard to convince this girl to stick around, and the exes are singing about how much of a bad boyfriend he is, and Jemaine gets so confused by them he starts offering this new girl cereal.
A good example of how they react to women is in the song “Boom,” and Bret sees a girl he thinks is attractive and wants to tell her, but has no clue how. In the first few lines he says; “I want to tell her how hot she is but she’ll think I’m sexist. She’s so hot she’s making me sexist.
