I must thank Abbi and Ilana for not saving the best for last when they brought on Vanessa Williams to guest star on Broad City. Although Williams channeled her Ugly Betty role as an investor in the company Deals Deals Deals that Ilana works for, Williams also embraced the feminist, uncouth humor of Abbi and Ilana that is seemingly not the norm for the regal singer and actress. Season 3 of Broad City started with Abbi and Ilana's antics in their bathrooms and the women have stayed true to the bathroom theme throughout Season 3, with Ilana and Williams singing a song about pooping at work.
Ilana spent most of the episode referring to the classic Internet videos of eBaumsworld like Salad Fingers, End of Ze World, and the music video "Aicha" by GellieMan. Since I spent many hours of my freshman year of college watching those exact videos, I was dying laughing, but Williams' character Elizabeth was not so amused. Yet, she assumed that Ilana would have her "salad fingers on the pulse" of the Deals Deals Deals Twitter audience and gave Ilana the responsibility of creating viral tweets for the company.
Ilana inevitably ruining this golden opportunity and Williams being a hard-ass boss aren't really groundbreaking storylines for either actress. Yet, they both took it to another level with their common bathroom habit. Ilana's boss Todd freaks out when he discovers that Elizabeth will be going into the bathroom when Ilana is in there since he knows she is bound to be doing something weird in there. And, he's completely right. After chatting with Abbi on her hot dog phone (how I love that cell phone case), she hangs up, picks up a percussion egg shaker and starts singing," I sh*t, I sh*t, I-ii sh**-**t" while accompanying her vocals with the instrument. It was just one of those bizarre moments in Broad City that is wholly believable for the character of Ilana to do.
Yet, when Elizabeth entered the bathroom (after Todd awkwardly and unsuccessfully tried to stop her), Williams shows off those pipes of hers by also singing the "I sh*t" song in her stall. While Williams didn't go as far as Ilana Glazer since the series didn't show her sitting on the toilet, it was still a bold move for the actress to be hanging in a dingy workplace bathroom and singing about her bowels.
My apologies if the song a direct reference to something I do not recognize, but the "I sh*t" moment is indicative of how Broad City is doing things many other shows aren't. Showing two women being so completely vulnerable and human, yet also extremely proud and satisfied that they are taking a poop at work (it's my favorite subject!) was awesome to see.
Only on Broad City do high-profile celebrities consistently come on the show, leave their reservations at the door, and go for broke to make the most of Broad City's radical and hilarious humor. I really am thankful to Abbi Jacobson and Glazer for being so talented that other famous women want to get in on the laughs. Plus, now I have a new song to sing when I'm hitting up the bathroom.
Images: Comedy Central (3)
