There Is Still No Bigger Fan of ‘Flight of the Conchords’ Than This Comedian
Over 15 years after Flight of the Conchords concluded and the American immigration system deported the titular folk duo back to their native New Zealand, Mel is still the biggest Flight of the Conchords fan in the world — poor Doug.
It’s hard to explain to a younger generation who knows HBO mainly for shows like Game of Thrones or Succession that, in the late aughts, the premium cable channel was the exclusive home of the twee generation’s greatest and most beloved comedic music act and its self-named sitcom. With their wit, their catchy songwriting and the slightest sprinkle of novel irony, New Zealand natives Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement turned their touring stage act into a TV show centered around a less-successful version of themselves as they slummed it in New York while playing library music shows and deluding themselves into thinking that their big break was just one catchy, comedic and semi-diegetic single away.
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Sharing in the Conchords’ delusion during two spectacular seasons was comedy icon Kristen Schaal, who played Bret and Jemaine’s biggest fan/stalker/aspiring groupie Mel and who continues to preach the power of the Conchords to this day:
On the show, Schaal’s character wasn’t just their biggest fan — she was their only fan, and her sad husband Doug had to sit by and withstand his wife’s verbal abuse while she threw herself at a couple of unemployed Kiwis with acoustic guitars. The only other character on Flight of the Conchords who cared about the Conchords’ musical careers was their band manager Murray, who somehow knew less about the music business than his managees. Of course, in real life, the band the Flight of the Conchords still commands a sizable fanbase to this day, most of whom still know every word to “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros,” and they're still active on both Twitter and Reddit singing the praises of timeless love songs such as “The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room.”
Since the conclusion of Flight of the Conchords, Schaal’s television career exploded as she served as a correspondent on The Daily Show under Jon Stewart and quickly booked high-profile voiceover work playing Louise Belcher on Bob's Burgers, Mabel Pines on Gravity Falls and various roles on BoJack Horseman for which she earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance. However, Schaal never forgot her short-lived, long-loved HBO series or the fans who still hum “I've Got Hurt Feelings” every time their feelings get hurt.
Just once, as thanks for all she’s done for the Conchords community, someone should paint a creepy, erotic fan portrait of Schaal.
