The T word: ‘Broad City’ turns Trump into curse word
Jordan Klepper tackles the alt-media in his new Comedy Central show
The following are highlights from the Television Critics Association’s summer preview of upcoming shows.
BEVERLY HILLS Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer make their distaste for President Trump crystal clear in Season 4 of Comedy Central’s Broad City (Sept. 13).
In one episode, the word Trump gets bleeped as if it were a profanity.
“In real life, we’re talking about the current administration, talking about Trump. It sounds so gross, every day saying it so many times,” Jacobson told TV writers on Tuesday, opening day of the summer TV press tour. “We just didn’t want to share air time. He’s got enough and we also don’t want to hear the word. It’s a different kind of joke.”
The women, whose younger TV alter egos embraced Hillary Clinton during an episode last season, took a break from writing the upcoming season, partly so Glazer could film Rough Night. They returned to scripts post-election.
“The clarity of the election, it solidified all these messages that we were talking about before. … If you’re going to talk about it, you’ve got to clearly state your beliefs about where you stand politically. Our message is heightened and crystallized this year,” Glazer said.
RuPaul, Jane Curtin and Steve Buscemi appeared in a Season 4 trailer that opened the session.
Jacobson and Glazer, who are executive producers, said they feel more confident in their approach with three seasons of
Broad City TV experience, remembering their earlier web series being referred to as “sneakattack feminism” and encountering questions about whether women could be hilarious when the Comedy Central show launched.
“More so now, we do have things we want to say,” Jacobson said. “The characters are trying really hard to be woke and to be involved and make things better, but they also try and fail at stuff. They’re imperfect, which is fun to play. ... The first thing we think about is the funny. It’s a comedy first.”
Asked whether the women have thought about an endpoint for the series, Glazer said: “It’s more about the story and the growth we want to explore in these characters. Each season, we have these goals for them but by the time the season is over, it’s something different than we expected in the first place.” KLEPPER TAKES ON ALT-MEDIA
Daily Show veteran Jordan Klepper’s upcoming Comedy Central talk show now has a name: The Opposition With Jordan Klepper. What’s he opposed to? Any- thing mainstream, as Klepper described the late-night show (Sept. 25, 11:30 ET/PT) to writers during Comedy Central’s session at the summer TV press tour.
During the 2016 campaign, Klepper, who will be based in a studio but occasionally will venture into the field, met people who rely on information from alternative media sources. Some accused him of being “Fake News” and even a member of the “Deep State.”
Klepper’s show will lampoon the alt-media, left and right, and the world of conspiracy theories.
“The outsider is the new thing. Donald Trump calls himself the outsider as he tweets inside the Oval Office. Breitbart was the outsider, but Steve Bannon now is in the West Wing. Who is the outsider other than somebody who is upset and anti-the mainstream, anti-facts?” Klepper said.
Klepper will portray an alter ego, a heightened character of the alt-media.
He said, “I’ll be playing a know-nothing provocateur who fights for the forgotten man and I may, at times, also forget that man.”