TV

Remember When Hillary Clinton Went On ‘Broad City’ And It Sucked So Hard?

We were so naive.

by Patrick Lenton  4 November 2020
Broad City Hillary Clinton

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As we suffer through the US presidential election of 2020, I can’t help but remember the last time all this happened.

The 2016 US election isn’t remembered fondly by most people — or at least by people who… didn’t vote for Trump. Ma’am, if you’re a Trump voter, what are you doing on my humble blog?

The election of Donald Trump to president was a rude surprise to most people on the left, as we were all safely ensconced in our safe little bubbles, and confident in the ludicrous cartoon buffoonery of the man. How could a country unite behind a walking parody of American excess? How indeed.

The confidence is difficult to look back on. There’s a couple of truly galling examples — remember Drumpf? Remember how we though “Covfefe” was both funny and interesting — the man speaks weird! Now, I don’t think anyone would even blink if he tweeted that.

But for me, this feeling of utter cringe at our devastating naïveté, of the vast depths of our horrifying stupidity, is when Hillary Clinton had a cameo on beloved TV comedy Broad City.

Broad City was not just a great show, it was a cultural moment. In 2015-2016, it was perhaps coming off the height of its powers, but it was still a goddamn delight. Funny, crude, possessed of oodles of charisma and energy. It was groundbreaking in terms of the type of comedy we were seeing from women on TV.

I personally re-watch the episode where Abbi blacks out and becomes a crooning lounge-singer who eats diamonds, on repeat.

But the Hillary Clinton episode was just a huge bummer. It’s appropriately titled ‘2016’ — and what is meant to be a lighthearted message of hope, ends up being a gloomy monument to our own foolishness.

In an SXSW panel, Abbi Jacobson insisted the cameo wasn’t an endorsement, and Ilana Glazer insisted they were simply “trying to make really good TV.”

“We were not trying to make a statement, to be honest. We wrote season three a year ago at this point. That’s not our show, really: Let’s make a political stance here. It was really more that this is something Ilana’s character would do. Hillary, even regardless of where we stand — and we love Hillary — is such an iconic figure. These girls being around her is not an everyday thing. That’s how we felt being around her. It was like, ‘Oh, this is a different world.’”

I think something could be said about the culture of trying to “stan” politicians that we want to support. I think over the past four years, we’ve realised that politicians are not our friends, and are not relatable, and should be judged only by how they are democratically performing their duties — having cute little cameos (like Biden on Parks and Recreation) not only feels cringe, it feels upsetting, when those same politicians aren’t representing our interests, or actively making our lives worse. This is a longer piece, I feel.

Regardless, it feels bad to watch this.

The scene, if it’s not burnt into your brain involves Abbi And Ilana at the Clinton volunteer office, catching sight of Clinton in a long green knit coat and a statement necklace.  She winks a whole bunch.

Most cringily, Abbi and Ilana FREAK out.

Then she unveils one of those inflatable air dancers.

“Of course!” Ilana says. “We assumed it was a he.”

“Oh, no, no,” says Clinton, putting her arms around Jacobson and Glazer. “It’s a she.” The camera flashes back to the air dancer, bobbing away in front of a television displaying Clinton’s logo and slogan.

It’s difficult to watch.

Anyway, in 2018 Abbi Jacobson said: “I love Hillary. I don’t think she should run again”, so let’s just keep moving on.