Flight of the Conchords- a band comprised of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, two guys from New Zealand living in NYC. I guess there was a muttonchop reversal at one point, since now Jemaine has them but Bret used to. This is the 6th episode in the series from HBO. These guys are playing themselves.

Episode: “Bowie”

Catchy short opening sequence- The two guys dance to a simple beat and acoustic guitar chords, in a very technicolor New York /East Village set, and animated elements keep dancing around them. It rivals Rome‘s animated graffiti for coolness- I keep on noticing new animated objects- the salt and pepper shakers and the mug of tea. The editing is really tight, too.

Scene 1- Band meeting in the New Zealand consulate (3B). Attendance is called. Bret jokes that he’s absent, joke doesn’t fly. Murray is the “deputy cultural attache”- nice. They discuss why they call roll. Band photo is item 2 for the oft mentioned “American media.” Photo Murray uses is a photo from “Jemma’s birthday.” Another photo of Jemaine and Cleo, with Bret’s head on it. I think that’s an actual personal photo of Jemaine- the actor- where reality and art are blurred. I’m deep.

Murray sets up a photo shoot, with a passport photo camera. Bret’s got a great band pose lounging against the brick wall. Yes! Brick wall band shots! Murray almost breaks character when he acts out the gymnast pose. This is the setup for Bret’s body image issue.

Scene: Internal apartment. Bret is reading “Novelty Music Scene” magazine with Weird Al on the cover (?). Jemaine rambling about penguins in New Zealand. Bret is wearing a sweatshirt of a tiger face circa 1982 perhaps. Ongoing theme of Bret’s small stature is ramping up a bit now. Jemaine keeps telling him he’s bulemic, based on getting sick at a party. Bret asks Jemaine for a compliment, Jemaine says “that will be weird.”

Bret dream sequence of David Bowie, circa 1972 (Jemaine floating in silver suit with face paint and third eye). Jemaine does a great Bowie- “oh the media monkeys and their junkie junkies will invite you to their plastic pantomime”. Bowie tells him not to worry about his body image- and to “get an eyepatch.”

Tuesday: apartment. Murray visits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Murray in their apartment. He shows the band an ad he placed in the Novelty Hit Music Magazine. Bret is wearing his new eye patch. Jemaine tells Murray that Bret is bulimic. Murray calls TMI on the bulimia. Murray tells them about a greeting card meeting, discussion regarding how exactly the music plays. All decide it’s a “Like a walkman.” Brett falls down due to bad depth perception from his patch. Not the funniest segment though the ad shows them both doing gymnast poses, which is kind of cute.

Jemaine visits Mel, the stalker-fan at university library. This actress is one to watch (Kristin Schaal). Asks her to compliment Bret more, he would do it but it would be “gay”. She goes into her schtick about thinking about whether it would be “gay” if they were in the back of a theater, touching each other… . Jemain wishes her husband, who is at the end of the table, happy anniversary. Jemaine asks him what their jobs are- he is former senior psychology professor, she is junior. Is this NYU? Not sure. Also, not quite sure what this setup is- will it be revealed later or am I just dense?

Scene: internal apartment. Jemaine’s uses his legal pad to read notes to Bret, on compliments he has compiled: “Your beard is good.” “You’re good at finding shortcuts around town.” Asks if he can sing Bret a song he’s written: “Bret you’ve got it going on” He does it in the acoustic/ folksy bluesy style of Jack Johnson-esque “Sure you’re weedy/ and kind of shy/ but some girlie out there must be needy for weedy shy guy ” [translation: my friend the kiwi tells me that weedy means "a scrawny/skinny"]. “Why can’t a heterosexual guy/ tell a heterosexual guy/ that his booty is fly?” then divulges that once he put a wig on Bret and spooned next to him while he was sleeping. Bret goes, “This is another one of your weird songs.” Jemaine defends himself- the wig-on-a-guy thing is not “gay”.

Bret gets the second Bowie visitation that night, from the 1982 video Ashes to Ashes: smoke machine, pixie hat, shredded sleeves, white face make-up. Bret asks about the wig-on-a-man gayness, Bowie says “That’s not gay. Totally fine.” Bowie tells Bret to “Do something totally outrageous. You’ll know when the time is right.”

Scene: the village, they’re walking down a sidewalk. Stalker-Fan lies in wait then pops out at them and starts dishing out the compliments to Bret, all of them are at the expense of Jemaine. She is great at getting in their personal space. Jemaine obsesses about her saying that his features are “Too deepset to be considered classically handsome.”

Greeting card meeting- the greeting card guy is comedic great John Hodgman (of Mac ads, Daily Show, author Areas of My Expertise)- though Hodgman sees a lot of money for the band if “I can get to know these guys, if I can see potential.” Murray does his ultimate manager technique, introducing Bret as a bulimic and Jemaine as the “ladies’ man.” Hodgman detects a lack of enthusiasm. Bret hears Bowie in his head telling him to do something crazy, hops on Hodman’s desk and yells “Woo hoo!” and there’s an unzipping sound, though it’s off camera. On the bus back home Jemaine asks, “Are those supposed to be lighting bolts on the side of it?” Murray laments that if he was a better manager he could have “turned it into something positive, like a cultural New Zealand greeting. We could have all done it!”

That night, third Bowie visitation from 1986, Labyrinth: eye shadow, spiky hair, waistcoat and cuffs. Bret blames Bowie for “showing his penis & penis tattoos to the greeting card manager”. Bowie says he’s useless. Bowie jumps out a window and into space, to go to a party. Begin musical interlude of Jemaine in a tight silver lame spacesuit, begins initally with “Space Odyssey” then a medley of all Bowie songs, called “Bowies in Space.” They have a good Bowie-esque lisp. Jemaine: “Do you have 1 freaky spacesuit or several ch-ch-changes?” LOL. Lots about nipple antennae, not sure what that’s about. Too many funny lyrics to quote here. Entire video on YouTube!

Later they meet friend Dave at Roger’s (a business selling: air conditioners/video/cameras/computer consulting/photos/printing, etc.) getting tea, Bret decides he doesn’t have to worry about being confident since Bowie isn’t. Jemaine takes his biscuit because Bret isn’t eating because he’s too fat. Murray shows up with the robotman greeting card with their song in it. They’ve printed 50, so made 50 cents, not enough for a coffee. More discussion of how the card plays, “pretty much like a walkman,” Bret explains.

PS. Credits include Bowie spoof of “Let’s Dance” (big over-sized zoot suits, strange dancing). I got into Bowie late, so the other Bowie references were a little obscure, though I did crack up at the Labyrinth one, and Jemain does a little Bowie shimmy and funny clunky boot walk that’s hard to describe.