Flight of the Conchords Defined a Generation of Awkward Comedy

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By Coren Feldman

In an era defined by brash American comedians, two awkward New Zealanders snuck on to our screens in the musical-comedy Flight of the Conchords. The band behind it (of the same name) has been self-dubbed "New Zealand's fourth most popular folk parody duo."

Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie star as fictionalized versions of themselves, trying—incredibly unsuccessfully—to make it as a band in America. The series follows their misadventures and schemes to make money to cover rent as they're relentlessly pursued by their one fan (Kristin Schall) and terribly mismanaged by Murray, their friend, band manager and Deputy Cultural Attaché at the New Zealand Consulate.

Despite the name, the show features virtually no flight.

Bret and Jemaine (the people, not the characters) had been playing their comedy music years prior to the creation of the show, and their experimentation in their performance style ended up being crucial to the success of the show. Their particular brand of awkward comedy may seem haphazard, but it's actually the product of years of workshopping.

“There was always a feeling that we had a different tone to the other people doing [live comedy]. Bret and I would sit there fumbling with the guitars and apologising; no one else was doing that." Jemaine told The Sydney Morning Herald. “But it did take a while for us to find that,” he continued. “Early on, we would make a big show and try to be rock stars. But eventually we thought we’d just sit there quietly: everyone else can do that, we’ll do this.”

But they discovered striking the balance between being awkwardly funny and just being awkward isn't easy. Often people would think they were simply unprepared or under-rehearsed. Finding the right tone  that let the audience know they were fully in control of the act while still being awkward and funny took time. 

The awkward comedy genre worked well for the show, but so did the characters' circumstances, struggling to make rent, not knowing how to interact with women in the dating world and trying to pursue a farfetched dream. The bandmates and their misadventures are all too relatable, which is how they're able to take a normal scene and suddenly have the characters burst into a song in fake French. That's the magic of the show.

Flight of the Conchords was a moderate success and ran for two seasons on HBO. The duo decided to go back home to their families in New Zealand rather than develop a third season, which HBO was willing to grant them. Ultimately everyone involved in the show went on to continued success; Bret won an Oscar for best original score for The Muppets, Jemaine racked up 9 Emmy noms and has landed roles in big projects, such as Marvel's Legion, and Taika Waititi—who helped write and direct the show— won an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit. 


Coren Feldman is the founder of CorenTV. He's also trying to coin "The 'Hat" as a nickname for Manhattan but is struggling to get it to catch on.