“Flight of the Conchords” unfortunately only lasted two seasons on HBO, and this was entirely the band’s own decision. After two seasons, Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie decided that it’s too much work to write original songs, then write original scripts that included the songs, and then make the show and appear in it. I’ll give them that. The quality of the show is largely due to the extent of their voice on all aspects of it.
With only 22 choices in total, the Best Episode Ever of “Flight of the Conchords” came early. Season one, episode four, “Yoko” was actually the first episode of “Flight of the Conchords” I saw. I of course went back and watched from the beginning on HBO On Demand, but “Yoko” proved to be the best introduction to the Conchords. Of course my first impression is the strongest but I’m prepared to defend my choice for the next several hundred words.
What makes the “Flight of the Conchords” humor work is the combination of irreverence, innocence, sincerity and literal take on music and stories about music. I know a few of those words contradict each other, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s satire, and these expert musicians know exactly how they’re subverting stylistic and lyrical conventions. But they’re not making fun OF music. They’re celebrating it.
Though they are successful real life musicians from New Zealand, the “Flight of the Conchords” TV show portrayed them as down and out struggling artists in New York. They would play gigs devoid of an audience except for their one fan (Kristen Schall) and their hapless manager Murray (Rhys Darby) would moonlight from his job at the New Zealand embassy to try to book them gigs.
In “Yoko,” Bret has been dating a girl named Coco (Sutton Foster), so Jemaine starts to see her as a Yoko Ono trying to break up the band. It is a poignant topic for musical stories, but in the world of the Conchords, Jemaine is just being ridiculous. The Conchords miss basic social cues, so Jemaine tags along on Bret’s dates and complains that he’s bored. Yet it never occurs to him to stop tagging along with Bret and Coco and just let them date.
Jemaine does help Bret write a love song to Coco in a brilliant spoof of the whole love song construct. Bret’s rough draft is two hours long full of meaningless metaphors like “I would climb the highest mountain for you.” Jemaine points out that Bret really wouldn’t climb the highest mountain, so maybe he should just stick to things he would actually do. Bret also continues singing the song while Jemaine uses the restroom during this two hour opus.
The brilliant thing about “Flight of the Conchords” is that they never point out, “Look! We’re making fun of how long the song is! Can you believe he’s peeing???” They just let it happen, as they do when they take a traditional love song and reduce it to mundane reality. Bret would hang out with Coco and that’s about the extent of his efforts. Nobody writes love songs about real relationships, and actually the effort to spend time together is kind of the sweetest thing.
“Yoko” has my favorite Flight of the Conchords song, “If You’re Into It,” which is the result of the above scene. Musically it’s a sweet, catchy tune. The lyrics get increasingly dirty while keeping the sincere tone of a love song, and Jemaine’s response to Bret’s verses are hilarious. My other favorite Fight of the Conchords is “Mutha’uckas” because I also have too many mutha’uckas ‘uckin’ with my s**’ but that’s a whole different issue. “If You’re Into It” is perhaps their best overall song.
The other song in this episode, “The Tape of Love,” is a nice one too. I guess it would be a few more weeks before I’d discover the harder edged Conchords songs like “Business Time” and “Robots.” Another great thing about their music is it encompassed all styles and tones. These are technically two ballads, although “Into It” is much peppier.
Coco is actually supportive of the band and makes a poster to help promote them… she even brings them lunch! She’s probably the anti-Yoko, but Jemaine is too wounded to see it. He acts up and Bret throws his sandwich at him which is a lovely bit of absurd slapstick. Who throws a sandwich? It’s too much for Jemaine and he kicks Bret out of the band, the band of two with one fan, mind you.
I think the moment that sold me on “Flight of the Conchords” for good was Jemaine’s ultimatum. He’s willing to let Bret back in the band, on one condition. He makes a throat slashing gesture, and Bret says, “I’m not going to kill her.” Jemaine corrects him that he just means break up with her, but Bret won’t do that either. The fact that they play the beat sincerely with Bret refusing to kill his girlfriend won me over forever.
It goes a bit further though. As Bret defends his relationship with Coco and Jemaine decides to let him back in the band anyway, Coco starts to say she’d be fine with breaking up. She doesn’t see this as a long term thing. She’s supportive even to the extent of giving up the relationship to protect their band. Alas, Coco would only appear on one more episode, but Bret’s commitment to principle, oblivious to the reality, is endearing.
Pretty much all of the too few episodes of “Flight of the Conchords” were great, from Sally to the Australian racists. I can’t fault Clement and McKenzie for wanting to move on from this all-consuming effort. I’m happy we got some new McKenzie music in the Muppets movies. I would have kept watching the show forever, but I’d be happy just for some new Flight of the Conchords music, without a show to go with it. For the two seasons we have, “Yoko” is the Best Episode Ever.
