Prime Minister (Flight of the Conchords)

Plot

Bret and Jemaine show up at the New York consulate for New Zealanders because the country's Prime Minister is about to visit. Murray tells them he booked them a gig pretending to be Simon and Garfunkel. They complain about having to perform songs written by other people, and Murray replies that those songs are better than anything they have written. They agree to do it for fifty dollars each. At the club, they sing a badly-timed version of "Scarborough Fair," chat with other impersonators, and a woman who is obsessed with Art Garfunkel, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub, picks up Jemaine.

The next day, the Prime Minister, whose name is Brian, gets to New York, and Murray sends Bret and Jemaine to show him around the city. The only stop on the tour is a pawn shop, where they talk about whether reality works like it does in The Matrix, a movie that just came out in New Zealand ten years after it was released in the United States. Both Dave and Brian think the Matrix is real and that déjà vu means the system has a glitch. Jemaine goes to dinner with the Art Garfunkel fan, even though Mel warns him the woman is crazy. The fan insists he put on the Art Garfunkel costume again so they can have sex. The scene then cuts to a music video for the song "Demon Woman" that looks like something from Judas Priest.

Murray, Bret, and Brian take a tour of the White House in Washington, D.C., but they are not allowed to meet the president. Bret performs a second song, "Oh, Dance, Baby," in a style that sounds like Korean karaoke. Brian yells at Murray for not arranging a meeting with the president, but then accepts Murray's formal apology. They start planning a party, changing the original idea of a Prime Ministerial BBQ into a fondue party on the roof. Murray hires a man named Louis Ortiz, who impersonates Barack Obama, and this fools the Prime Minister. But then Brian sees two people dressed as Elton John sneaking off together, thinks this is another glitch in the Matrix, and runs to jump off the roof.

Songs

In this episode, Bret and Jemaine don flashy shirts and skeleton costumes to perform a song about Karen's psychotic behavior, spoofing Cliff Richard's "Devil Woman." Bret also sings a Korean love song as karaoke, parodying the style of karaoke music videos. He performs in front of a screen with Engrish subtitles and scenic images, while Jemaine appears on a carousel in the background. The original melody comes from a Mandarin song titled "往事只能回味 (Wang Shi Zhi Neng Hui Wei)," composed by Taiwanese musician Liu Jia-Chang.