Recently, New York Times tech-guru David Pogue has been attacking the evil cell phone companies with his “Take Back the Beep” campaign. But it looks Flight of the Conchords comedian Arj Barker may have beaten him to the punch by about three years.

Pogue has been saying, and I think everyone agrees, that voicemail instructions are irrelevant, a waste of time, and a waste of your valuable minutes. This great piece at his NY Times blog sums up his argument.

I’ve seen Pogue everywhere, on every tech site and news program, discussing his campaign and offering advice on skipping past those messages (press * for Verizon, 1 for Sprint, and # for AT&T and T-Mobile. “Remember,” Pogue says, “One Star Pound”).

Now, Pogue’s frustration is hardly new, but I was impressed by the parallels when I saw this clip from a 2006 Arj Barker Comedy Central special.

Arj Barker - Cell Phone Messages

Sound familiar? It looks like Arj Barker (“Dave” from Flight of the Conchords) was way ahead of the curve on this.

“I think it’s absolutely criminal — CRIMINAL — the way the cell phone companies make you sit through all those voice mail options when you just want to leave a message,” Barker says, eliciting populist cheers and applause. “Cause you know what they’re doing, they’re doing that intentionally, to burn up our minutes that we’re paying money out of our pockets for, and it’s a crime.”

He continues with his one and a half minute interpretation of the instructions, ending with a reading from The Brothers Karamazov.

So perhaps Pogue was a little late to the game, but I guess Barker didn’t have the momentum of the entire internet and the NY Times at his disposal. Pogue’s little campaign has become an epic movement, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Maybe he and Barker will team up? Only in my dreams.