Jacobson moved to New York in 2006, after studying visual arts in college. After a year of living in NY and attending classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade, she met Ilana and they continued to work together at UCB for two years; Ilana had previously done various other comedy avenues and had been attending UCB without knowledge of Abbi.
After their time at UCB, they begin to film their web series Broad City; which were 1-6 minute short videos they uploaded to YouTube, something tangible they could show their parents to prove they were trying. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were the social media platforms that catapulted Broad City around the web and got them some recognition.
A recurring theme throughout the Broad City web series and television show, is the presence of dance sequences that the girls partake in. Whether they are paying homage to Spike Lee or Missy Elliot the duo maintain this running joke that they embody the 90's hip hop scene and that they, like many other females, love to dance for any occasion.
During their initial production of the BC web series, the mode of video chat communication played an important role in how the girls intimately kept in contact with each other. It relays, specifically, to the millennial generation and the excessive use of technology in our lives. For the second season of the web series, every other episode was a video chat between Abbi and Ilana; this method transferred over when they got their series with Comedy Central.
In the web series 2nd season finale the girls are on a race through New York to get to their destination. On their way they encounter subway and street musicians, people crowding the park, sidewalks, and streets, catcallers, and they just so happen to meet up with Amy Poehler. This episode was directed towards the style the t.v. show would be structured.
It was soon into their second "season" on YouTube that they got the attention of Amy Poehler, a prominent figure of women in comedy, to whom they decided to pitch their idea for a television series based on the web series and characters they created. It was evident that they had created something that was beyond the spectrum of most comedies involving females in that it spotlighted the importance of female relationships as the main component of the show.
In this 12-minute clip, Amy Poehler discusses the making of Broad City with Abbi and Ilana; it was one of the first interviews done when Broad City was in production getting ready to be aired on Comedy Central.
Promotional Video for Broad City Season 1 Premiere On Comedy Central January 22, 2014.
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer's dynamic female relationship on their show, "Broad City", supports an untapped interpretation of the modern unruly woman. The duo are, essentially, in a platonic relationship with one another, and they act as each other's guide and confidant on dealing with the dilemmas of twenty-something females who aren't, in essence, proper ladies. Jacobson and Glazer's wacky "weed-head" antics get them in heightened situational versions of reality while simultaneously tackling issues of equality, sexuality, racism, religion, political and systemic patriarchy, and, overall, female behavior.
After dealing with weird fetishists, getting locked out, having their phone stolen, hurricane wanda and the shit shoe, Abbi and Ilana made it through another year and are celebrating Abbi's 26th birthday. Of course, because it's Abbi and Ilana it is not a normal dinner experience. They incorporate bodily and physical humor throughout the entire episode and push the boundaries on female strength.
