Claiming the third point of a triangle that also connects the Indigo Girls and the Flight of the Conchords, the Topp Twins are a yodeling, folk-singing New Zealand musical comedy act celebrated exhaustingly in the documentary “The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.”
Jools and Lynda Topp are two lesbian farm girls who grew up in rural New Zealand and built their name on left-wing protest songs and with comedy characters like “the two Kens” and “Camp Mother and Camp Leader.”
The Topps have infectiously cheerful personalities and clarion singing voices, but the lyrics of their songs (about such topics as “Calf Club Day,” whatever that is, and the failings of the 1986 New Zealand prime minister, whoever that might have been) and their ’50s-style comedy mugging not only don’t come across to Americans, it’s hard to believe even New Zealanders would care. Everyone (including the principals and a series of talking heads) keeps telling us how funny and brilliant they are, but the clips from their stage act don’t back them up. They’ve been performing for 30 years and it’s safe to say that if they had any appeal here, you would have heard of them by now.