COMM 380:  Media Criticism

Broad City is a television sitcom based on the misadventures of two charmingly dysfunctional millennials living in New York City. The show was conceived by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, who also star the protagonists, as a series of YouTube skits. Eventually, the webseries gained enough notoriety to be picked up as a cable network show by Saturday Night Live alum Amy Poehler. The main plot of the series places its emphasis of the authentic, empowering friendship between its main characters Ilana and Abbi. Though the actions of the protagonists, Broad City puts female imperfection on full, unapologetic display, resulting in a television show that exemplifies a shining female friendship that is unabashedly feminist.

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Glazer and Jacobson originally met through

the Upright Citizens Brigade, an

improvisational sketch comedy group responsible

for churning out notable alumni such as

Aziz Ansari and Donald Glover. It was during

their stint with this particular comedy club that

Glazer and Jacobson developed their Broad City

web series, which caught the eye of

Amy Poehler -- one of UCB’s founding members.

As their new mentor, Poehler eventually helped

grow the webseries into a cable television show

aired on Comedy Central, on which she is

executive producer.

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As of writing, Broad City has been renewed through five seasons. Its success on its current platform is impressive, seeing as Comedy Central’s dominate viewer demographic is males at 62% (Scarborough). While the show is about the lives of two women, it is not solely for women, and its triumph lies in negating the stereotype that women don’t make good comedians. It is also important to note that Broad City is primarily written and executed by women, making it a rarity in its field. Many writing rooms are dominated by men, with women making up only 19% of television writers (TV Tropes). This becomes an issue when women on television are written from a male’s perspective, which can lead to negative stereotypes and misrepresentation.

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In Broad City’s case, its creators have the freedom to use their own voices to provide a genuine, positive, and hilarious portrayal of themselves.

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The show’s feminist perspective is also hinted through its title. Broad City is a meaningful double entendre -- first, in the sense that New York is the expansive home of its characters, and second, the city is dominated by the antics of Abbi and Ilana. Additionally, in Glazer’s words, the phrase “broad” came from the vision of “a full woman who knows their stuff, knows who they are and what they want, knows their limits, and is doing the best that they can” (Smart Girls, 2013). This sets the show up as an arena for its own brand of feminist emblems, Abbi and Ilana.

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The show stars Glazer as Ilana Wexler and Jacobson as Abbi Abrams, a pair of Jewish twenty-somethings sloppily navigating adulthood in New York City. In response to the characters Abbi and Ilana, Amy Poehler stated “women always have to be the eye rollers, as the men make a mess -- we didn’t want that. Young women can be lost, too” (Paumgarten, 2016). Both work mediocre jobs, an all-too-relatable feeling to the show’s millennial viewers: Abbi is a struggling artist who begrudgingly works as a gym cleaner, and Ilana slacks off into another dimension at her Groupon-esque sales job. Neither of these details are as important, however, when you realize that Broad City’s main purpose is to showcase Abbi and Ilana’s friendship, rather than their individual lives.

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According to Glazer and Jacobson, Broad City’s premise is simply an exaggerated version of their own real life friendship (Smart Girls, 2013). What stands out about their relationship is that the two actually enjoy each other’s company, and the pair manages to avoid common tropes of female friendships like back stabbing, undermining, or competing against one another. It is also worth applying the Bechdel Test to the series, a common measure of whether a work of media has adequate representation and interactions between women -- the show passes with flying colors. Abbi and Ilana have more important things to talk about than just men, like how to pull off exchanging an office supply gift card for drugs. Similar moments of absurdity follow the duo throughout the pilot episode, as the show manages to get across its feminist perspective without ever sacrificing its comedic value to do so.

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Each episode’s plot can pretty much be summarized as “Abbi and Ilana bum around the city and get into mischief,” which is no different in the show’s pilot, “What a Wonderful World.” Both characters are equally broke and hedonistic, which dictates the episode’s story -- Ilana and Abbi decide they’re going to a Lil Wayne concert despite their impending work obligations or lack of funds. Luckily for Ilana, her boss Todd is the opposite of a domineering supervisor -- instead, he is pitifully submissive, allowing her to get away with taking an eight hour lunch break. Abbi casually lies about having AIDS to leave her cleaning job early. The two shamelessly put aside their responsibilities to have a good time with each other.

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In order to come up with enough money to attend the concert, the duo resort to antics such as selling stolen office supplies, bucket-drumming in the park for tips, and finally, offering their cleaning services via a posting on Craigslist. As put by Ilana, “we’re just 2 Jewesses tryin’ to make a buck.” Saturday Night Live alum Fred Armisen makes a guest appearance as a typical Craigslist user, a grown man wearing a diaper, who hires the two to clean his apartment semi- nude.

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When asked to pay up, he shrugs and explains to them “I’m just a baby, I don’t have any money.” The two angrily trash his apartment, but eventually manage laugh it off as they leave with armfuls of his expensive liquor. Abbi and Ilana were willing to put themselves out there to get what they wanted. Instances like this are part of the show’s wide appeal -- its ability to simultaneously celebrate and make a mockery of the sometimes naive and heedless nature of twenty-somethings.

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With occurrences such as in the apartment cleaning scene, It is clear through their interactions that neither Abbi nor Ilana are shy about their sexuality, and the topic is far from taboo in this show. In the pilot episode, we see Abbi contemplating a dildo while video chatting Ilana, who is mid-coitus. This type of unapologetic sexual freedom expressed by Abbi and Ilana is something that most women do not experience television or in movies without being portrayed as sexual objects. Of the topic, Glazer stated “it’s like these girls are horny but not under the male gaze. They’re horny, period. Just starting from the vagina, not starting from some man looking at them.” (Laurie, 2016) At one point, Ilana dictates how to label the relationship between her and her sexual partner (played by Hannibal Buress), calling it is “purely physical.” She is in charge of her own sexuality, and the duo’s lack of labels contributes to the show’s overall progressive tone.

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Comedy is a notoriously male-dominated profession, making Broad City’s breakthrough all the more remarkable. Jacobson and Glazer successfully presented a feminist television show by putting emphasis on a positive female friendship while downplaying the role of men in their characters’ lives. Sure, men are present and included, but they spend most of their time in the background, as mere accessories to Abbi and Ilana’s camaraderie. Abbi and Ilana care more about each other and nurturing their bond, and in a way, that’s as feminist as it gets.

 

Bibliography

Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. (2013, May 17). Broad City: Smart Girls w/ Amy Poehler. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd0Lovd4Xv0

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Laurie, K. (2016). 'Broad City' Stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer's 'OUT' Magazine Interview. Retrieved April 01, 2016, from http://www.celebuzz.com/2016-02-25/broad-city- stars-abbi-jacobson-ilana-glazer-out-magazine-interview-sexuality-fludity/

 

Paumgarten, N. (2014, June 23). Id Girls - The New Yorker. Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/23/id-girls

 

Scarborough Research. (n.d.). COMEDY CENTRAL | New York Interconnect. Retrieved April 02, 2016, from http://www.nyinterconnect.com/comedy-central/