1.10 New Fans

Summary and spoilers

Murray is flush with good ideas for the Conchords to look cool, including the suggestion that they should dangle a stalk of hay out of the side of their mouth. This doesn’t help with their next gig: Murray has booked them into a ‘World Music Jam’, believing that because the Conchords are from New Zealand, they qualify. The gig is cut very short by the emcee, despite Mel’s obvious enjoyment. More surprising are two other women who are taken with the band. Soon, Bret and Jemaine are dating them. They visit Dave to borrow some of his ‘cool’ clothes (like a t-shirt with a mouse doing it with another mouse trapped in a mousetrap). Dave borrows Indian clothes from two older people that he insists on calling his ‘roommates’, although everyone knows they are his parents.

Murray shows the guys the band website, where, unknown to the boys, webcams have been beaming images of their apartment (including their bedroom, where Jemaine was engaging in a little one on one love) over the internet.

A Murray-sponsored fan contest is won by Mel, of course; she has earned the right to cook dinner for the band. She does this in her home, tucking her husband Doug away to hide in a nondescript corner – until he is accidentally discovered by Bret. But her dream night with the band is severely compromised when Bret and Jemaine also bring along their new groupie girlfriends. Mel still fulfills her role and cooks up a storm, but she’s seething with jealousy throughout the night. Mel is particularly concerned that the new girls care nothing about the band’s music and are only interested in sex. She cautions Bret to make sure that the girls respect his boundaries, but obviously she has no such boundaries herself, as she relates this advice while poking her head around the toilet door while Bret is trying to pee.

Bret and Jemaine leave early with the girls. At Rain’s place, they agree to do acid. After a freaky trip, Summer offers Bret, and then Jemaine, a threesome. For a long time, the boys are confused about exactly who is in the threesome. When they find out that they both are in it with Summer (Rain has gone home), they are appalled and try to get out of it by climbing out the bathroom window, but the window leads back to the lounge room and Summer, and that man-lady-man threesome.

Comments

It’s great that Mel gets a chance to shine in this episode with a few more lines.

There’s something wonderfully amusing about Bret’s proud stance as a staunch non-fan of his own band.

Songs in this episode: the funky ‘Ladies of the World’ and the acid-induced ‘The Prince of Parties’.

Flight of the Conchords Quotes

Murray: You can’t be a fan of the band!
Jemaine: Why?
Murray: It’s not a good look.
Jemaine: But I’m a fan.
Murray: Yeah, but people look at the fan list and they say, "Ooh, hang on, that guy’s in the band, isn’t he? He likes himself." It’s not a good look. You don’t see Bret on the fan list.
Bret: Yeah, that’s ‘cause I’m not a fan of the band. I’m more a fan of popular bands, like the Bee Gees…Pearl Jam…

"Republic of Dominican
Amphibian
Presbyterian"
- Jemaine (reciting some categories for the ‘Ladies of the World’)

"All you sexy hermaphrodite lady-man-ladies
Your sexy lady bits
And your sexy man bits too
Even you must be into you, ooh, ooh"
- Jemaine (from ‘Ladies of the World’)

"I don’t care if you’re ugly or you’re skanky or you’re small
I just want to do a little something special for you all"
- Jemaine (from ‘Ladies of the World’)

Jemaine: [about Dave’s roommates] They’ve got photos of themselves with you as a kid.
Dave: [whispered] I know. It’s creepy. I think they make ‘em on the computer.

Mel: What was your name again?
Rain: It’s Rain.
Mel: Oh…that’s nice…kind of like bad weather.