A to Z: Flight of the Conchords

Flight of the Conchords was brilliant.

Jermaine Clement & Bret McKenzie

If you never caught it, Flight of the Conchords ran for two seasons on HBO several years ago.
A half-hour comedy documenting the efforts of two musicians from New Zealand who came to New York, trying to make it big with their 2-man bad, with the help of their manager Murray, who also works in the hole-in-the-wall New Zealand consulate.
So, it is kind of like 'The Monkeys', only better.  And funny. Very, very funny.

The music is also brilliant.  The songs are funny and well done.  I'm not a musician, but I still find this inspiring because of the consistent success they have with each song, each in a different genre of music.
When I paint minis I try to go with the same attitude: there is no reason I can't paint in any style with any genre of mini.  Maybe some won't come as natural, but it can be done.

Some of their songs I instantly liked, others had a higher hurdle to get to me, simply because some songs would be in styles of music I can not stand, like hip-hop, or rap, or modern R&B.. I'll admit it happily: I hate those styles of music.  I have no tolerance for them. But Flight of the Conchords are so talented and add such humor it's infectious, even these style of songs I have liked. I can't think of a higher recommendation.

A running joke in the show is that Americans don't know what New Zealand is, and if they have some idea, it is only as either Middle Earth or that maybe it is part of Australia.  To bring more awareness of New Zealand, the manager/consulate officer has different travel posters appear in his office from time to time:

 

 
 
Despite these posters I still want to go to New Zealand someday.

Another gem of the show is Kristen Schaal.

She plays Mel, the band's one fan, who is also an obsessed stalker.
She is hilarious.  One of the funniest things about the show in my opinion.  Her delivery is brilliant.
She's on the Daily Show occasionally now, and hope she'll be in more things in the future.

When living in Belarus for a lot of 2010 and traveling around a lot afterwards, Flight on the Conchords got some heavy rotation time on my iPod.

Each episode had 2 music videos within the funny in its own right show.

Enjoy some of the great music videos below and if you've never seen the show, check it out!
Everyone needs a good laugh.

Probably my favorite is Business Time.  Barry White has nothing on Jermaine:


All those horned up hip-hop girls singing about their parts could take a lesson from Bret & Jermaine:

Speaking of travel, if you ever wanted to learn French, then this.. well it probably won't help much:


So 80's, I love it:


Another contender for my favorite lyrics:


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This has been an A-Z Challenge post. 
For the month of April there will be an update for each letter within the theme of: Things that influence and inspire me, or the converse: things which I find distressing or make me want to rail at the world.
Some of these will pertain to the miniatures hobby, but many will venture off to atypical territory for the duration of the challenge, then it will be back to normal with mostly minis and an occasional blithering.
You can find out more about the A-Z challenge my clicking the logo at the top left of the page.