On Jan. 22, 2024 — if you’ve lost track, that’s next week — “Broad City” will be turning 10 years old. In anticipation of that momentous occasion, today Abbi and Ilana released a new episode of their iconic Jewish show.
Well, kind of…
The aforementioned episode of “Broad City” is actually a 3-minute MiraLax commercial that Ilana Glazer posted to her Instagram this morning with the caption, “@abbijacobson and I got back together. For @MiraLAX_us. ” But while it may just be a commercial, it has all the trappings of a very good and very Jewish episode of the Comedy Central show.
The commercial opens on Ilana admonishing her friend, “Grow up, Abbi. Literally everyone enjoys talking about poop or not poop!” A promising cold open of sorts. Cut to five minutes earlier. The “Broad City” broads are seated at a restaurant (perhaps a Jewish deli?) together for brunch. While Ilana is already moving on to her dessert of hamantaschen and what appears to be a slice of babka, Abbi hasn’t even touched her entree.
“Why aren’t you eating, you flew in just for this: our quarterly Jewish food feast,” Ilana asks. Abbi tries a few different excuses that Ilana immediately rebuffs. Abbi got pins and needles on the plane? Ilana has compression socks she can borrow. Abbi is already full. Ilana is shocked that Abbi would eat without her. And finally, Abbi admits it: She’s constipated. Though not without her saying it too quietly at first, forcing Ilana to hilariously shout, “GIRL, WHAT?”
And then we’re back to where we began, with Ilana explaining that everyone loves to talk about poop — which is perhaps one of the most Ashkenazi sentiments in the whole world.
But thankfully, the two Jewesses don’t have to just talk about how uncomfortable Abbi feels. Because Ilana has just the thing for her friend: packets of Miralax. (Despite the fact that Ilana herself never gets backed up, she carries them because “It’s literally how I’ve made friends… and a couple lovers.”) The commercial than gets, well, a little commercially, with the pairs’ dialogue turning into facts about how women are more likely to get constipated because they face more stress. Still, it comes back to a very “Broad City” place, with Abbi getting riled up over how her sexist her gut is and how she has to fight for “poop equality.”
“I really get it now, why I’m so backed up,” Abbi begins, before she concludes “the stress of being a woman in the world” as Ilana simultaneously says, “cheese.”
“No, stress,” Abbi corrects her confusedly, and Ilana hands her a glass of water with Miralax mixed in. And, scene.
To be honest, most of the time I cringe at campy celebrity commercials (don’t get me started on Natasha Lyonne‘s Old Navy ads…). But frankly, I can’t think of a more authentic and Jewish way for the pair to reunite. As one Instagram user commented on the post, the only way it would’ve been better would be for the broads to close out the commercial singing Ilana’s “I shit” song.
