By Matthew Wood

The boys turn over yet another musical leaf this week, as they bust out their hip-hop style — and hip-hop names. But, the prosperity of the band is threatened when Bret (aka Rhymenocerus) and Jemaine (the Hip-Hopopotamus) get mugged, and Bret runs away, leaving Jemaine to fend for himself against a gang of two.

Jemaine makes friends with the one mugger after the other mugger takes off, leaving the two to think about their fleeing friends while spending a few days in jail. Why did Jemaine get thrown in jail for getting mugged? Well, don’t worry about that. Just understand that things will never be the same in the band, since Jemaine’s emotional scars from getting ditched and mugged run deep.

Fortunately, the boys make friends with their muggers, and even invite them to get some pizza (they can’t because of a previous white supremacist meeting, but they appreciate the offer).

So, the boys, as usual, end up right back where they started: no gigs and no money, but at least they got Jemaine’s cameraphone (which is actually just a camera attached to a cell phone) back from the muggers.

The highlight of the show’s short run so far has to be the rapping number the boys do when trying to show their would-be muggers how tough they are. Rhymenocerus flows like Niagara, but Jemaine has a little trouble following up his initial rhyme — “They call me the Hip-Hopopotamus/My lyrics are bottomless” … and that’s as far as he gets for a while. Yes, our heroes are hard core, and they have no problems dropping some mutha-flippin’ lyrics for y’all.

The fellas may not have a nighttime gig yet, and they’re still only about $15 deep in their bank account. But, at least they picked up some street smarts. And, who knows? Maybe they can find a market for New Zealander hip-hop stars. Well, maybe not so much.