What if Flight of the Conchords was awful?
Time to see if duo’s deadpan comedy still works 10 years on
What if, in hindsight, Flight of the Conchords sucked? Let’s go back and check. When we re-examine the things we thought were good 10 years ago in the harsh light of the current day, the unfortunate truth is that a lot of it won’t hold up. Indeed, when I look back now on my main cultural touchstones of 2007 — Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne, Lip Gloss by Lil Mama and the Lil Mama remix of Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne — it can be hard to see what genius I once saw in them. The first episode of Flight of the
Conchords premiered on HBO precisely 10 years and four days ago, on June 17, 2007. The same week, Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s debuted on the New Zealand Top 40, plaintively asking the question: “What’s it like in New York City?”
Like most New Zealanders who only started paying attention to the Wellington comedy-folk duo once they had a major network American TV show, I thought FOTC was pretty funny.
But what if, with the hindsight of 10 years, it actually totally sucked? I rewatched the first episode with a critical 2017 eye just in case.
The series begins with Jemaine (Clement) telling Bret (McKenzie) about all the girls he’d got it on with back in New Zealand — “Sarah Fitzpatrick, Michelle Fitzpatrick, Claire Fitzpatrick . . .” — while walking to their friend Dave’s party in NYC. I didn’t remember this deadpan