What a year it has been for TV's favorite stoner BFFs.
After a season marked with dog weddings and citizenship-celebrating yacht parties, Broad City, the comedy about the adventures of two broke, twenty-something women trying to survive and thrive (and get high) in New York, wraps up its momentous sophomore run Wednesday on Comedy Central.
Often billed as the anti-Girls, the absurdist series hailing from the creative and twisted brains of creators and stars Abbi Jacobson (Abbi Abrams) and Ilana Glazer (Ilana Wexler) has continued to push boundaries in its second season.
As the season of high hijinks and hair-brained shenanigans comes to an end, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Jacobson and Glazer to break down a few of the season's most outrageous moments.
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"In Heat" and an uncomfortable conversation
With Seth Rogen guest starring, the show's second season opened with a bang — and with that bang, an uncomfortable conversation about just how consensual that bang was.
"We really thought it was a place where we could talk about taboo subjects," Glazer said of the incident in which the extreme heat of Abbi's apartment caused Rogen's male Stacy to pass out during sex. "We always start with what's funny and it was funny for Abbi to think that she had committed this terrible thing, but it was this gray area where the comedy came from."
However, Jacobson and Glazer admit that both they and Comedy Central were nervous about the storyline and the ensuing conversation.
"[It's] a conversation about the gray area of rape and [Comedy Central] was nervous about people getting angry and some people did," Glazer said. "We were worried about the response on that. I think most people like got that it was a conversation and a side of the story that you never hear."
"Wisdom Teeth" and Abbi's toothy pal
While Ilana is usually the one embracing her id and eschewing responsibilities, the season's third episode found the roles completely reversed, as too many drugs after a wisdom teeth operation caused a loopy, hallucinating Abbi to traipse around Williamsburg with her imaginary friend.
"I think we all have had experience with our wisdom teeth being taken out and that's a perfect early to mid-20s story to tell," Glazer said of the episode's inspiration, which found her character frantically trying to track down her disoriented BFF.
But why the crazy David-After-the-Dentist-on-Steroids trip? Glazer laughed, before matter-of-factly adding, "Those drugs they give you are pretty f— up. They're pretty major."
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"Knockoffs," aka the pegging episode
"We knew it was going to be so fun because we knew it blended two really awesome storylines where the Abbi-Jeremy (Stephen Schneider) thing was a big payoff and so was meeting Ilana's family," Jacobson said of what the duo consider to be one of their best episodes of the season.
According to Jacobson — who with Glazer started Broad City as a sketch comedy show at New York's Upright Citizens Brigade theater — they knew from the edit that this episode would be special, or, in her words, "We were like, 'Oooooh shit, this is good. It's fun and heartfelt and so good.'" However, the most notorious part of that storyline, the pegging itself, almost didn't happen.
"We all knew people who had done it," Glazer said of the storyline's inspiration. "I had a friend who was into this really masculine guy. It was more of like the concept: Imagine if that was what they did on their first date? And then we really did go past it, like 'No, no, no, this is too ridiculous this and that,' but we decided to at least give it a try because we were open."
Glazer and Jacobson were quick to mention that one of their main focuses of the storyline was to make sure that the pegging itself wasn't the joke, but that Jeremy's "new sincerity" was. "We didn't want that preference to be the joke, because it isn't to us, but it is the joke of being hung up on some little detail," said Glazer, who noted that the term "pegging" was actually coined by Dan Savage. "It's more funny that he's a details queen … that everything in his house is like a tea shop."
"Citizen Ship" and "Kirk Steele" — where the supporting characters shine
Both "Citizen Ship" and "Kirk Steele" found some of Broad City's most interesting supporting players stealing the insanity spotlight. In "Citizen Ship," Ilana's roommate Jaimé (Arturo Castro) finally passes his citizenship test and joins the girls, as well as fellow recurring players, gross human being Bevers (John Gemberling) and Ilana's not-boyfriend Lincoln (Hannibal Burress), on a harbor cruise they will never forget (as hard as they might try). "Kirk Steele," on the other hand, revealed that Trey, Abbi's boss at trendy gym Soulstice (played by Broad City writer Paul W. Downs), actually had a past as a low-budget gay porn star.
"We definitely went into the second season knowing that we were still going to have these episodes that really revolved around Abbi and Ilana, but the exterior characters are so talented and so amazing and we, have only seen a little bit of them, so it was so fun to get to show more of them," Jacobson said. Added Glazer: "We did totally feel like we could go so much deeper with our characters."
While the duo acknowledged that most of the show is scripted, once they get to shooting they do love to run at least one "fun run" of improv, a practice they learned from executive producer Amy Poehler from her time on Parks and Recreation and the comedic skills of the beloved NBC comedy's cast.
"We really like to let our friends and talented actors inhabit the characters and really flesh them out with little details and little responses that flourish on a line," Glazer said. "It's fun to get a little loose around the edges in that way."
Have a favorite moment from this season of Broad City? Curious if they'll top it in the finale? Leave your comments below and tune back into The Live Feed after the finale for more with Jacobson and Glazer.
The Broad City finale airs Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.
Twitter: @NotPhelan
