Herald on Sunday Editorial: Muppet man Bret does us proud
5:30 AM Sunday Mar 4, 2012Bret McKenzie's Academy Award win on Monday for best original song (Man or Muppet, from The Muppets film) played out as a perfect counterfoil to the grand triumphs of Peter Jackson and his team in 2004.
McKenzie's self-effacing onstage style was perfectly in tune with the shtick he developed with Jemaine Clement in "New Zealand's fourth-best folk comedy duo" Flight of the Conchords.
Not for him the tearful and overwrought speech in which he thanked everyone from his lawyer to the man who cleans his pool. Instead, stooping towards the too-low microphone (his failure to adjust it was a nice piece of theatre) he said he had been "genuinely starstruck" when he met Kermit the Frog, but added that "he's just a normal frog".
His pronouncement that New Zealand was a country where you got to live your dreams won't have done this country's international image any harm, but the image most (and most deservedly) boosted is McKenzie's own. They say you've made it in Hollywood when people take your phone calls rather than having their secretary take a number; Bret will be put straight through from now on.
McKenzie and Emmy-nominated Clement (who together won a Grammy in 2007 for best comedy album) have been pursuing different careers of late, though they are talking about a "reunion tour" and a movie ("We just need a story"). That would delight their legions of fans here, who knew and loved them when they were only the seventh-best folk comedy duo.
But in any event, they have done us, and themselves, proud. The world takes itself far too seriously far too much and it is a better place for a bit of Conchords' deadpan.
No angry dances required (although there were a few when it was decided his song wouldn't be performed at the Oscars). Great Muppet song, terrific artist. Win-win. Xoxo to Bret
Only kiwis understand this neediness and, as a kiwi myself, I fully understand this projection of NZ by NZers that achieve something, as our proudness.
I don't live in NZ anymore, but it is still an exceptional place. The country truely does punch above its weight. I think Brett came to a couple of our flat parties when I was a student at Vic, and that just makes me think NZ is a small place.
It would feel like a much longer path to fame and success if you grew up in NZ so why not bring that up in your speech?
Brett won an Oscar. Well done. Good on him. Congratulations. Why try and turn it into some kind of multi-million dollar tourism boost or world cup win? This is Brett's, not New Zealand's. You don't get to claim it or share it just because he was born in roughly the same geographical location as you were.