15 Years of Flight of the Conchords
Becky Trotter (she/her)
This June celebrates the 15th anniversary of Flight of the Conchords. The band-turned-television show has earned a conical place in cult classic TV of the 2000s. Introducing the careers of Taika Waititi, Kristen Schaal and Rhys Darby, let’s consider what made the show a millennial masterpiece.
Starting out as the self-proclaimed ‘4th best parody band in New Zealand’, they perfected their caricatured tributes to chart hits of earlier decades, before writing the TV show. The duo’s extensive knowledge of UK and USA popular music was the source material and backbone of the show, and by 2000 there was a rich catalogue from the all the big genres to lampoon. Their skits and parodies were affectionate digs at pop icons and styles, created with warmth and good humour; this was a send-up with a heart.
The displacement of two naive New Zealanders living in New York was the joke's template. It reframed the glamourous ‘living in the big city’ sitcom to a small under budget show where most scenes took place either in a tiny apartment or New Zealand’s culture office. The minimal décor of the show reflected the period. The mid-2000s brought the likes of YouTube, a DIY industry that prized the quality of content over an expensive camera lens. Major television shows caught on to the premise, most notably, Saturday Night Live. The ‘digital short’, launched in 2005 was fronted by The Lonely Island; Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccones. Weekly segments on the show were comprised, filmed and executed within five days. These fun, low visual quality bits contributed significantly to early internet content. ‘Lazy Sunday’, the 2nd instalment, a rap about sneaking snacks into the cinema to watch Narnia, went viral. The juxtaposition between Samberg’s exaggerated rap and its content was emulated most in the Conchords’ disposition. The most notable comparison has to be ‘Hurt feelings’, a rap in which the duo compares their misfortunes, e.g. the inability to find a wetsuit in your size.
Unlike surrealist shows like the Mighty Boosh that merely featured throwaway songs, Flight of the Conchords defined their comedy by them. Due to the time and exertion, it would take to compose at least one high quality song per episode, the quantity of episodes couldn’t meet the demand, and only two seasons of the show were created. However, this quality over quantity aspect seems to be their gift. Instead of submitting to the audience’s request and churning out garbage for the sake of money, their particularity has allowed the show to age gracefully. Flight of the Conchords dedicated its content to the 2007-9 period, when a camera-phone could be a made with a roll of tape, if they persisted further it would’ve lost its nonchalance. Leaving this gap in the market for others to develop the pair’s work, the likes of Bo Burnham have preserved musical comedy. Emerging in the YouTube’s caveman age, Burnham adopted the comedic song trope with the same underlying attention to his specific generation. Unlike Flight of the Conchords, Burnham’s lyricism has a political undertone, speaking on current affairs and engaging with the medium of the internet. Padding out his discography, Burnham created live comedy shows that engaged with his followers to create a persona. As seen by Flight of the Conchords in their performances there is familiarity of the duo Jermaine’s lack of self-awareness and Bret’s naivety as with Burnham’s sharpness. Although all three have engaged in other works, e.g Burnham directing the A24 film Eight Grade, these caricatures have moulded memorability.
Flight of the Conchords perfected the musical comedy by engaging with it’s period. On the brink of globalisation through the financial crash and rise of the internet, 2007 was the final opportunity for New Zealand to play up it’s small-townness. Were the show made ten years earlier, the digital camera, still in its infancy, would have created visuals of unwatchable quality, as it did in Edgar Wright’s Spaced. However, made ten years later the concept again wouldn’t work; the entire episode dedicated to the prime minister ‘Brian’ would have to be scrapped, as Jacinda Ardern was brought into office that year and has remained a high-profile political leader. Returning to the show, we can see it for what it is and what it started. A time capsule for the millennial generation, the show combined two dominant features of television at the time, the sit-com and the music video, creating a whole new concept that has gone on to inspire the internet generation.
“The juxtaposition between Samberg’s exaggerated rap and its content was emulated most in the Conchords’ disposition.”
