Let's Hear It For The Girls

An oral history of Comedy Central’s groundbreaking, culture-shaking Broad City, as it takes its Season 5 bow

- Anna Menta

TUNE IN TO COMEDY CENTRAL AND GET READY FOR A CRY FEST,” says Lucia Aniello, her own voice quavering with emotion, of the series finale of Broad City, the show she helped shape as a writer, executive producer and director for five seasons. The hilarious, often gross and frankly weird saga of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer debuted in 2014, with the two stars and co-creators playing heightened versions of themselves. The more timid Abbi works as a cleaner at a gym called Soulstice; Ilana, the wild one, spends her days sleeping in the bathroom at her sales job at the online company Deals Deals Deals. The poor, New York City-living, Hillary Clinton-worshipping feminist BFFs drift from one small adventure to the next, often making mistakes (like Ilana’s occasional appropriation of black culture), rarely getting what they want but always finding comfort in their friendship.

Broad City started as a web series with a nonexistent budget, created with the help of NYC comedy friends. Comedy Central picked it up thanks to comedian Amy Poehler, a fan. Before long, it was one of the otherwise male-skewing network’s top shows. Jacobson and Glazer, struggling comics until then, would see their careers explode.

Through it all, the two have remained the closest of collaborators, and they will continue to develop projects for Comedy Central. “We came with these essential parts to creating a partnership that moved each other forward,” Glazer tells Newsweek, which spoke to the girls—as they call themselves—and their many collaborators about the groundbreaking show.

The Beginning