I think I’ve missed the joke.

The Flight of the Conchords is the name of a New Zealand comedy duo – Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement – who have now been given their own self-titled show (10pm, Sundays, Channel Ten).

Renowned US network HBO, which gave us such TV gold as Sex and the City and The Sopranos, picked up this 12-ep series and has apparently commissioned a second.

This Kiwi double act has won award after award for its live appearances at comedy festivals and events; it has a cult following around the world and even won a Grammy in February for Best Comedy Album.

Such high praise and, yet, how misguided.

To me, they are about as funny as the unfortunate scheduling of that chocolate milk ad where the guy deliberately hurls himself into a tornado for the adrenalin rush at the same time as horrific scenes of devastation flooded our newscasts when Cyclone Nargis flattened Burma.

The TV show is supposedly about a couple of losers trying to make a success out of their folk/pop band while living in New York.

The two leads bumble through their lines with a maudlin and monotone humdrumminess that I imagine is akin to the white noise they torture prisoners with.

I can see that they might have an appeal, but how on earth that appeal stretched past Beavis and Butthead-styled male university second-years who subsist exclusively on beer and baked beans to the Grammy voters et al shall forever remain a mystery.

Here’s an example of their “humour” taken from their official website: “Flight of the Conchords have put up a website on the internet. A spokesman from the band (Bret) said it there was a five-year delay launching the website online due to a 'disagreement'. Apparently there was debate over how many times the letter 'W' should appear in the 'WWW' part of the web address. While Bret wanted four, making the domain name wwww.conchords.co.nz Jemaine was vying for seven, with wwwwwww.conchords.co.nz. It turns out that you're only allowed three anyway.”

If you are chuckling now, probably best you click out of this blog now.

I mean, am I getting old? Is this supposedly modern and edgy comedy? Am I missing something here??

I intensely dislike The Flight of the Conchords because:

It is cringeworthy, unfunny, boring and aimless.

The groan-versus-chuckle ratio is seriously skewed - as in, there are more groans, on average, than laughs.

It takes too long to arrive at a perceived punchline, at which point the viewer (namely, me) realizes with endless frustration and discontent that said punchline was most definitely NOT worth trawling through all that crap dialogue for.

Props, production values, acting, writing, direction … all summed up in one word: dodgy.

It makes use of surely one of the most annoying devices in television production: the sudden burst into song in the middle of a scene, complete with disco lights and mood music. It worked in Fame, but it doesn’t here.

I am disappointed by the fact that these guys haven’t bothered being creative enough to put any effort into their show title.

And if you market yourselves with the word “folk” in your act description, then you’d better be moaning about somethin’ blowin’ in the wind, peace trains or paving paradise in my book, thank you very much.

I’m even slightly annoyed by the blatant discrimination and omission of the letters T and R in the offending Christian names of both guys (Bret and Jemaine – come on!)

Alright, now I’m getting picky. But tune in, if you dare, and check it out for yourselves.

I guarantee you will be disappointed.

- REBECCA MARSHALL