"Bret Gives Up the Dream" is the second episode of the HBO comedy series ''

Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's come ...

''. The episode first aired in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on Sunday, June 24, 2007. A song in this episode, "Inner City Pressure", received an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

nomination in 2008 for "Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics".

Plot synopsis

Starved for cash, Bret and Jemaine apply for jobs as

human billboard A human billboard is someone who applies an advertisement on their person. Most commonly, this means holding or wearing a sign of some sort, but also may include wearing advertising as clothing or in extreme cases, having advertising tattooed on ...

s. Only Bret gets the job however, which causes problems when the band finally gets a gig at a travel expo. Murray and Jemaine confront Bret at his new job, and this leads to a debate on the chicken/egg causality dilemma. Unable to attend because of his job, Bret records his part onto a

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

for Jemaine to play along with. Murray decides the tape is as good as the real thing and fires Bret. At the travel fair, Murray and Jemaine's efforts to promote New Zealand are ridiculed by a smug Australian official, Maxwell (James Smith), and his contingent of bikini girls. Meanwhile, Bret develops a crush on Coco, a new arrival to the sign holding team. Dave (Arj Barker) is not credited in this episode, even though he is seen in a shot in the song "Inner City Pressure."

Songs

The following songs are featured in this episode.

"Inner City Pressure"

"Inner City Pressure"Lyrics from Episode 2: "Bret Gives up the Dream".
Official HBO Website begins near the start of the episode, after Bret and Jemaine lament their poor financial state upon having to resort to eating food Bret has found on the street. The song and video are performed in the style of "

West End Girls "West End Girls" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. The song's lyrics are concerned with class and the pressures of inner-city life which were in ...

" by the

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...

"Boom"

"Boom" is an inner monologue sung by Bret while conversing with Coco, the attractive new sign holder. The song is performed in an

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...

style similar to that of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n artist

Shaggy Shaggy may refer to: People *Shaggy (musician) (born 1968), Jamaican American reggae rapper and singer * Shaggy 2 Dope, half of the hip hop, horrorcore band Insane Clown Posse * Shaggy Flores (born 1973), Nuyorican poet, writer and African diaspor ...

.Shaggy - ''"Boombastic"''
(

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

) The lyrics centre around his attraction to Coco but are distinguished by the fact that nearly all

noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...

s are replaced by the word "boom". The accompanying video features Bret and Coco dancing in front of an animated background and has strong similarities to

The Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie, who replaced Kim Hil ...

' " Hey Mama" video.Black Eyed Peas - "Hey Mama"
(

) Also featured prominently during this sequence is a 1980s

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

DG20 digital guitar (set to mandolin).

Other songs

The end of "Rock the Party" is seen being performed by Jemaine at the Travel Expo. Bret is not present, but he provides musical accompaniment and back-up vocals via a pre-recorded cassette tape. This song, whose lyrics consist mostly of the words "rock the party", makes an appearance in several future episodes.

Cultural references

The Toothbrush fence that Murray refers to is an existing attraction. It can be found near Te Pahu, a small town 30 km southwest of the city of

Hamilton, New Zealand Hamilton ( mi, Kirikiriroa) is an inland city in the North Island of New Zealand. Located on the banks of the Waikato River, it is the seat and most populous city of the Waikato region. With a territorial population of , it is the country's fou ...

.Te Pahu Toothbrush Fence
/ref> It is one of a number of other novelty fence tourist attractions that can be found in New Zealand, such as the Cardrona Bra Fence.

Broadcast and reception

"Bret Gives Up the Dream" debuted on HBO on June 24, 2007. The episode received over 973,000 viewers, a decrease from the first episode's 1.2 million views.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bret Gives Up The Dream Flight of the Conchords episodes 2007 American television episodes Television episodes written by Jemaine Clement