I haven't watched "John from Cincinnati" yet, and may not get to it until tonight (please hold your comments until I do a post), but spoilers for, in order, "Flight of the Conchords," "Entourage" and "The Loop" coming up just as soon as I go to my Nana's for a cup of tea...The "Rhymenoceros vs. Hiphopopotamus" video was easily my favorite "Flight of the Conchords" moment to date. I've probably watched it a dozen times since I first watched the screener of this episode, and it's likely going to achieve Turk Dancing/"Lazy Sunday"/"Dick in a Box" status where I keep watching the damn thing and quoting it ("They call me the Hiphopopotamus; my lyrics are bottomless...") long after the rest of the world has tired of it. (It's not up on YouTube yet, but you can watch an older concert version that's not nearly as funny; Bret's rapping skills have improved, and the use of synthesized beats instead of acoustic guitars works much better, parody-wise. UPDATE: Still not on YouTube, but HBO.com has it.) Same basic concept as "Lazy Sunday" -- nerdy white guys trying to be hardcore rappers without the lyrics or life experience to back it up -- but executed perfectly. Each time I watch it, I notice new funny things, like Bret's goofy dance while Jemaine is doing his first Hiphopopatmus verse.
And where I felt the first episode was strong on the music and weak on the jokes and the second episode was the opposite, this one was a good melding of the videos and the non-musical script. Loved Murray's fear of New York (and him not realizing that handing out those reflective vests was inspiring all those muggings of New Zealanders), the camera phone, Bret just assuming Jemaine was dead and renting out the apartment, the entire running gag with the murdered monkey, the reveal that Bret was on the double-date with Jemaine and Lenny Venito, more accent humor ("he may be dead" vs. "he maybe did"), Mel getting all worked up over the idea of Jemaine getting raped in prison, pretty much all of it. Next week's show isn't as good (it's basically a rehash of the pilot), but this one gives me hope that this show can be more than just a simple pleasure.
Though I had seen that episode a few times, I felt like I needed to watch it again to cleanse the taste of "Entourage," which did one of their worst episodes ever. The Drama/Turtle storyline exemplified all the worst aspects of the show; like Turtle's that much more of a prize than Colleen Camp? (And was that a fatsuit or has she just put on a lot of weight since the last time I saw her in the mid-'90s?) The Vince plot was yet another boring case of everything working out perfectly for our hero, and while E and Vince disagreeing on the quality of "Medellin" (and based on the editor's comments, I think we're supposed to believe E is right) has some potential, E ain't funny, and never has been. Just a bad, bad half-hour of television.
Finally, we say farewell to "The Loop." Well, sort of. My DVR was misbehaving all night, and the third episode is unwatchably pixellated, so I'll have to track that down by other means. Still, two amusing episodes before that, with Sam again in drag, Darcy perfectly matched with Derek Tricolli (who shouldn't make me laugh and yet does), Meryl molesting a drunken Sam (girl is kinky), the completely random Mark Cuban cameo (and does Cuban really fly coach?), and more. "Reaper" is better, but I'll still miss this silly, crude little show.
What did everybody else think?
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