Flight of the Conchords: New Zealand's fourth most popular folk parody duo

It's better to experience Flight of the Conchords by just listening to them rather than listening to somebody explain them, but I'm gonna throw caution to the wind here and tell you a bit about them anyhow.

Flight of the Conchords (or FotC, for short) is a musical comedy duo from New Zealand with songs that are every bit as funny and clever as "Weird Al" Yankovic's but tend a little more toward the "adult" more than the sophomoric and are generally not nearly as weird, absurd, or parodical. (Yes, "parodical." It's a real word.)

The band is comprised of Jemaine Clement, who (sadly) no American had ever heard of before FotC, and Bret McKenzie, who some people might recognize as the elf Figwit from the Lord of the Rings movies.

"Wait, did he just say Figwit?" Yes, he did. But that's a story for another time.

Flight of the Conchords also has a TV show on HBO. See it on Sunday nights at 10 PM EST. (A new season starts this Sunday, so now's a perfect time to start watching.) The humor is a bit of an acquired taste, so it's quite possible you may love the music but can't tolerate the show.

Now, enough talk. More rock! If you're not in love with FotC after watching those videos, go back and watch them again. I'm not letting you leave here until a see a smile on your face. Language/content warnings all around, but here are three videos that'll give you a good sampling of the group:


"Business Time":


"Frodo" (as it appeared on the TV show), which, as you can guess, has to do with The Lord of the Rings:


"Robots," A.K.A. "The Humans Are Dead":



"Please! I beg you!" you may say. "Where can I find more of this Conchordy goodness?" Well, there are plenty more FoTC videos on YouTube, for starters. And there's What the Folk!, an outstanding fansite that features Conchords news, merchandise, FREE downloadable songs, and so very much more. And for those of you actually interested in supporting the band, their CDs and the DVD of the first season of the TV show are in real stores, possibly near you!


[Image from www.flightoftheconchords.com, the self-proclaimed 4th best unofficial fansite on the 'net.]