Glenn Garner
With another presidential election coming up, Ilana Glazer is looking back on one of their favorite Broad City guest stars.
The Emmy Award winner recently recalled the mixed reactions to Hillary Clinton‘s 2016 cameo on the Comedy Central series and when they realized “how politically perceived” the show was, which they co-created and co-starred with Abbi Jacobson.
“Oh my god, what a world! Things have changed,” Glazer told The Independent of the episode featuring Clinton. “I mean, I did vote for Hillary Clinton. I did want Hillary Clinton to win over Donald Trump. I don’t think she’s a perfect, flawless person or a perfect flawless politician. I’m not friends with her. I can’t really tell you where she is for me on a spectrum of hate to dislike to like to love—maybe somewhere in the middle as a person? But I really wanted her to win.”
In the March 16, 2016 episode ‘2016’, a recently unemployed Ilana lands a gig volunteering at Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters amid her infamous political showdown against Trump. The episode ends with a fangirl moment in which Abbi and Ilana fawn over the Democratic candidate as she pays a visit to the office.
“I’ve been told my whole career my work is political,” said Glazer. “When Abbi and I ‘learnt’ that Broad City was feminist, we were like, huh! We hadn’t even thought about it like that. I’ve certainly gained awareness over how politically perceived my work is since, but I consider it my personal responsibility to keep going deeper in who I am so that I don’t get stuck pushing a platform. If you’re not leading with comedy, it’s propaganda.”
After launching the show as a web series from 2009 to 2011, Broad City caught the eye of executive producer Amy Poehler and landed a five-season run on Comedy Central from 2014 to 2019.