10 Fascinating Facts About Broad City

What started as a YouTube series soon evolved into a cultural sensation. Broad City made its debut on YouTube in 2009 as a short web series, starring Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, both alumni of the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB). When the duo decided to expand the show to a larger platform, Amy Poehler, co-founder of UCB, signed on to executive produce. In 2011, FX considered a pilot, and though the names of Abbi and Ilana were almost changed to Ali and Eliza or Carly and Evelyn, they ultimately passed on it. Comedy Central, however, picked up the series, and it premiered on January 22, 2014.

Broad City showcases exaggerated versions of Abbi and Ilana (last names Abrams and Wexler, respectively), who embark on wild adventures around New York City, much of which is based on their real-life escapades, including Deals Deals Deals. As we look forward to the fourth season, premiering on September 13, here are 10 fun facts about this bold female-friendship comedy.

1. ABBI JACOBSON MISTOOK ILANA GLAZER FOR ALIA SHAWKAT FROM ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.

Jacobson and Glazer first crossed paths while working together on an improv practice team at UCB. In an interview with The New York Times, Jacobson shared that before they met, she mistakenly believed Glazer was Alia Shawkat, the actress known for portraying Maeby Fünke on Arrested Development.

"After our first night of practice, we went to a bar and started chatting about our backgrounds. It turns out she knew two of my best college friends," Jacobson recalled. "At that moment, I thought... this is no longer Maeby. I’d definitely know if my friends were friends with Maeby. We really clicked right away. I was originally trying to be friends with Maeby, but then I thought, ‘I’ll just stick with this girl.’"

2. THEY CAUSED A STIR AT WHOLE FOODS.

"It had to be Whole Foods," Jacobson explained. Whole Foods obliged their request. Surprisingly, they weren’t upset by the hallucination. "They cared more about us accurately naming the price of their manuka honey," Glazer noted. "The true price!" In the end, Abbi spent an eye-watering $1487.56 at the store, part of which went towards the manuka honey.

3. THE SHOW LOVES TO USE BARS TO CENSOR NUDITY.

At times, the women are seen nude on the show. However, unlike Lena Dunham in Girls, Jacobson and Glazer rely on blur bars to cover their private parts. "Lena Dunham is amazing," Glazer shared with New York Magazine. "I love seeing her body on screen. Lena embodies the message that normal bodies are beautiful, sexy, and powerful. But we don’t think we’d have the courage to be that kind of vessel, even though people still get the message, like, ‘Wow, they’re not bony!’ Lena's nudity isn’t for a joke, you know? Ours always is. We’re very thankful for those blur bars. So thankful."

4. HILLARY CLINTON'S CAMEO WAS A POLITICAL STATEMENT.

In a March 2016 conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Jacobson mentioned that Hillary Clinton’s appearance on the show, where she played herself, wasn't intended as a political message—though she later reconsidered.

"Of course it’s a political statement!" Jacobson told The New York Times in October 2016. "For us, it felt like we were defending our show in a different way—it seemed historic." The episode was written a year before it aired, at a time when there were no other political contenders.

This season, the duo will make another political statement by bleeping out the word "Trump." "It just sounds so gross, hearing it so many times every day, and we didn’t want to give it any airtime," Glazer explained.

5. SOULSTICE IS INSPIRED BY A REAL GYM.

One of Jacobson’s side gigs involved handing out flyers for an Equinox gym near Grand Central Terminal. "I didn’t even get paid, just a membership," Jacobson shared with TIME. "But back then, I thought, ‘This is amazing!’" At least Jacobson didn't have to deal with cleaning up gym vomit, unlike her character on the show.

6. JAIMÉ'S ACCENT ISN'T GENUINE.

Arturo Castro portrays Ilana's gay, weed-dealing Venezuelan roommate Jaimé on the show, but in reality, he is none of those things. "Sometimes people are a bit disappointed that I don’t actually speak like Jaimé," Castro told People. "When I see their faces drop, I try to imitate it for a second. And then my girlfriend’s like, ‘What are you doing?’"

Castro revealed to The Daily Beast that people are often surprised to learn he doesn't sell marijuana. "One guy approached me in Bryant Park and said: ‘Dude, you don’t have an accent?’ then followed with, ‘So you don’t sell weed either?’ He was really let down and just walked away."

7. GLAZER WAS RELUCTANT ABOUT HER BROTHER WRITING FOR THE SHOW.

Glazer’s brother, Eliot, wanted to contribute to the show’s writing, but she felt it might be “too close for comfort,” he told The New Yorker. "It caused some tension for a while." Eventually, Eliot appeared in five episodes of Broad City as Ilana’s brother and went on to write for New Girl and Younger.

8. JUST LIKE ABBI ABRAMS, ABBI JACOBSON IS AN ARTIST.

When Jacobson, a graduate of art school, first arrived in New York City, she sold greeting cards all around the city. As she shared with The Huffington Post, she peddled them on the streets and even attempted to get them into the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). "I was really hustling, trying to get a big retail store interested, but it didn’t work out," she recalled. Some of her artwork appears on the show, and last year she released an illustrated book called Carry This Book, which went on to become a New York Times bestseller. She also hosts the podcast “A Piece of Work,” co-produced by MoMA.

9. TREY TURNED TO PORN AFTER HIS ACTING CAREER FELL SHORT.

In the later part of season two, Trey—Abbi’s boss at Soulstice and love interest—confessed that he had starred in soft-core porn under the name Kirk Steele. Paul W. Downs, who plays Trey, is also one of the show’s writers and producers (and is in a relationship with Broad City director Lucia Aniello). "In the original script, he got into porn because he was struggling to make it as an actor/model/host," Downs explained to Vulture. "Then he hit rock bottom after missing out on a Kirkland Signature campaign… But as shown, it was just soft-core porn, no hard-core stuff. Yeah, probably the most—well, entry-level for porn?"

10. GLAZER AND JACOBSON DON'T SMOKE WHILE WORKING.

Though Glazer and Jacobson’s characters are often seen enjoying marijuana on the show, the actresses don’t partake while working. “It’s one thing to hand us a joint—I’m like, ‘Thank you so much,’” Glazer told New York Magazine. However, Jacobson pointed out that they can't work while stoned. “But when people expect us to smoke with them? Everyone assumes we smoke in the writers’ room,” she said. “It’s like, we would never be able to get anything done if we were high!”