Flight of the Conchords: I wish I had a rapping alter ego

So I've taken to tricking people into watching Flight of the Conchords in an attempt to make it the runaway hit of the summer. I lure them to my apartment with promises of hanging out, and then I innocently propose watching the "You're So Beautiful" song from the first episode, because "I know you'll find it hilarious." After they inevitably do find it hilarious, I suggest we watch the whole episode, "since it's just a half hour." I've seen the first episode five times now, but I'm pretty sure that slowly but surely, I'm creating an army of Conchords fans. Follow my example, Conchords Army, and the world will be ours!

Tonight's episode kept up the momentum of the first two, and taught us all a valuable lesson about friendship. And muggers. The episode begins with Bret's mom and Murray expressing concerns about the guys' safety in New York. Murray helpfully outfits Bret and Jemaine with New York City-themed apparel, maps, and reflective suspenders in a bizarre attempt to keep them safe, which gets them mugged pretty much immediately. Bret tries to ward off the pair of muggers with his rapping "rhyme-noceros" alter ego (with Jemaine backing him up as the hip-hop-potamus):



Unfortunately, the muggers are not deterred, and give chase. Bret runs away while Jemaine gets caught on a fence, crying for help. Two days later, Bret returns to the scene of the crime with Murray and Dave, but Jemaine is nowhere to be found. They assume he's dead, until the police inform them that Jemaine has simply been stuck in jail making friends with John, one of the muggers, the other one having run away when the cops showed up. (Ten points to whoever can tell me where else I've seen John. It's bugging me.) Jemaine is understandably upset that Bret left him to die, and Bret doesn't appreciate being hassled about it. Wanting Jemaine to accept his apology, he arranges a meeting with the John-deserting mugger to get back some of Jemaine's property. All's well that ends well, and the two muggers hug and make up, setting a good example for Bret and Jemaine to follow.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: This show rocks on multiple levels. It rocks so hard that it's sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. It rocks so hard that it goes all the way to 11 on the Moh's Scale of Rock Hardness. It rocks so hard that...um...yeah, I'm out of geology jokes. But it rocks really hard, is my point. Sunday at 10:30 on HBO.