Social Media Strategy & Engagement Marketing by Karl Long

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Jul 3, 2007

Brilliant Flight of the Conchords Redux By Grant McCracken

If you only read one thing today you should read Grant’s post on the Flight Of The Conchords, it is a wonderful piece of criticism in the classic sense of the word. Grant deconstructs at least 9 comedic threads and then goes on to describe how FOTC also splices those threads in very novel ways.

dissonance, as when Clement takes on child labor in one of his “message songs,” only to spin off into a reflection on why sneakers aren’t cheaper, the suspicion that we pay too much for sneakers, before being thrown free of the song with a plaintive cry: “what’s your overhead?” This is anthropological trickery of another kind. Normally, the folk song and business analysis are things kept secret. Clement binds them up.

Here’s the song about issues, I could listen to this over and over:

3 Comments, Comment or Ping

  1. arb:

    There is one small difference between Flight of the Conchords and Larry David. He’s been at the top of game for about 16 years and counting.

    Admittedly, the FOTC have SPLICED together comedic traditions in some interesting ways. At the same time, many of their set pieces seem quite similar to other shows on HBO. For instance, the scenes between FOTC and their manager Murray Hewitt owe something of a debt to scenes in ‘Extras’ where Ricky Gervais deals with part-time managerial help also woefully inadequate to the task.

    Mockery performed as a duo calls to mind artists like Tenacious D etc… their use of different music styles to underpin the humor of the lyrics reminds of the material Beck hss put out for over a decade.

    Their unsure social skills compared to their slick musical performances makes the difference between ’song time’ and ‘drama time’ another comic element of the show.

    I imagine that the lads from NZ are well aware of all the above. In fact, their use of various comedic stylings and traditions is one of the reasons their first couple of shows have have found an audience. I’ll be watching… while remembering they are still on their first album.

    Jul 7th, 2007

  2. Karl

    Totally agree on the Larry David point Anthony, this obviously early days for the FOTC tv show. I think they’ve been around as a band since 2000, and one of my friends even had a couple of albums, along with his Richard Cheese collection.

    I was watching the other day and think that Murry is a bit of a mixture of David Brent and the manager out of extras.

    Jul 9th, 2007

  3. arb:

    You’d have to be from New Zealand to incorporate a pair of red rugby shorts into your wardrobe for comic purposes. Speaking of Rugby, why has there never been a piece of South African comedy sighted outside the country?

    Jul 11th, 2007

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