This is the opening scene of season two of Broad City. Abbi and llana, the show’s creators
and best friend protagonists are just trying to survive a chaotic subway ride.
“Val? Val!”
And the camera kinda lands on these other two women who are standing there with pepper
sprayed eyes.
That's Caroline Framke
I write about culture at Vox. I’ve watched and analyzed this show to death.
Like many of the best moments in Broad City, the entire scene is super surreal, so the
two women probably wouldn’t stand out to a first time viewer.
But, if you watch Broad City religiously like we do, you’ll immediately get the joke.
Those two women are a callback to a moment in the first season when Abbi and Ilana actually
got pepper sprayed. They’re wearing the same clothes and have the same devastated
looking faces. Ilana’s doppelganger is even holding the same curtain rod.
That’s a callback.
Your typical joke in a TV comedy requires very little space between the setup. Take
the classic Dick Van Dyke Show
Rob: “Honey will you grab me a handkerchief?” Laura: “We’re only going next door!”
[ VOX CITY LOGO ]
Your typical joke in a TV comedy requires very little space between the setup.
[CLIP] Dick Van Dyke Show: Rob: “Honey will you grab me a handkerchief?”
Laura: “We’re only going next door!”
and the punchline.
Rob: “Well I guess I’ll run back here to blow my nose.”
If you’ve never seen the show before you’re still guaranteed a good laugh.
[Audience laughter] But there’s another set of much more intricate
jokes that are written specifically for diehard viewers.
They are callbacks, running gags, and easter eggs.
So, what’s a callback exactly?
A callback references a moment or joke that most likely happened in a previous episode.
Seinfeld was one of the first shows to employ callbacks pretty regularly.
To use two famous Seinfeld episodes. One to set it up is “The Contest” Where all the
characters compete to see who could go the longest without masturbating.
“So you’re still master of your domain?” “Yes yes I am.”
Caroline: George wins. Then later in the “Puffy Shirt” episode -
That’s Season 5
George is trying to be a hand model.
A client makes a reference to a previous client being "Master of his domain."
Client: "He was not master of his domain."
And George says not to worry about it
George "You don't have to worry about me. I won a contest."
If you’re a casual viewer you’re not gonna know what that means.
But if you’re a viewer that’s stuck with Seinfeld a little bit you know exactly what
that means.
Callbacks can very easily turn into running gags if they keep happening again and again.
Like, no one knows what a chicken sounds like on Arrested Development.
That is not how a chicken sounds. Chickens don't CLAP!
coo ca coo coo ca coo
chi cha chi cha chi cha Awe this is priceless. Coo ca coo
A coo da doodle doo a coo da doodle doo
You're a chicken! coo coo ca chaaw coo coo ca chaw!
You're the chicken, not me. Clock clock clock clock claaaawwwww
Or how Kenneth the page is an immortal flesh vessel in 30 Rock.
Kenneth: I've worn this old jacket since 19 hub a dah
You killed the bird I had for almost 60 years. Sure I was legally dead for 5 minutes
Who said I've been alive forever? Because when I look into a mirror there's
just a white haze.
And in Broad City?
Abbi always having to clean increasingly gross things out of the gyms bathroom.
Trey: Got something for ya. Abbi: Oh okay
Trey: Big ol clogged toilet in the women's room.
Trey: We got another pube situation in the women's locker room
Trey: We could really use some Abbi magic there's a pube situation in the locker room
that is unprecedented.
Trey: Somebody barfed on an excercise ball and then in bounced down 2 flights of stairs.
So.
Trey: There's a bloody shit spew in the spin studio. But really there's a bloddy shit spill
in the spin studio.
A good example of how intertwined callbacks and running jokes can get is a stylistic choice
that Broad City has made for a couple of moments. When Abbi and Ilana are thrown off or disoriented
by a piece of news.
Morgan: “Oh my God, she doesn’t know?” Ilana: “Know what?”
And it’s because Ilana finds out that Abbi made out with a friend of theirs.
Morgan: “Darcy and Abbi made out!”
Ilana has always wanted to make out with Abbi and has never gotten to, so this is a very
personal blow to her.
This is a direct callback, shot for shot, to a moment when Abbi misses a package delivery
that’s she’s supposed get for her neighbor / crush, Jeremy.
At this point? That’s a callback. If they use it again and keep using it, that can become
a running joke.
One of my favorite callbacks in Broad City actually begins in “Working Girls” when
Abbi has to track down Jeremy’s lost package.
Operator: "Your borough's distribution center is on North Brother Island.
Abbi: "Is that in New York? I've never even heard of that."
Operator: "Yeah it's in the East River"
Here we're introduced to Garol.
Abbi: "Hello, Garol. I'm not sure I'm in the right place."
Garol:" You are."
Garol was the keeper of lost packages.
In other words an old lady eating yogurt alone in a warehouse on North Brother Island.
You would think Garol is just an amazingly cast one hit wonder, but fast forward 12 episodes
and she’s the patron of a speakeasy that Abbi performs at when she’s blackout drunk.
Abbi performing as this sort of Liza Minelli-ish lounge singer with this very exaggerated accent
is so wonderful because if you are a diehard Broad City fan you might remember what we’ll
call an easter egg.
Abbi: Val about town. Town about Val.
Crowd: Hey Val! Val!
Ilana: “How did I not know that when Abbi gets blackout drunk she becomes Val?”
Wait, Val? Let’s rewind back to the 2nd season premiere.
“Val? Val!”
The best part about this entire moment is how Abbi is just as confused as we are. At
that point we’d never heard of Val before.
It's a very elaborate set up.
It's an amazing easter egg.
Almost every viewer will get a running gag. More attentive viewers will get callbacks.
Only diehards will get easter eggs.
If a TV show can pull off Callbacks, running gags, and easter eggs it can really build
out a much more satisfying world.