It’s been 10 days since the box set of Broad City was available for purchase. Since then, I’ve spent over a week re-binging the entire series. That’s time well spent in my book! Abbi and Ilana are two people who both remind me of myself. I just really feel a lot of the jokes make sense and sometimes even call out piercing questions. I think that’s why this is one of my favorite shows of all time. Anyway, as I revisited the show, I was reminded of the greatest episodes of the series. These are the best Broad City episodes that made me laugh the hardest and storylines intrigued me.
The best episodes are when both of their storylines have an impact.
Best Broad City Episodes #5 – Kirk Steele (Season 2, Episode 8)
The eighth episode of season two, titled “Kirk Steele” is definitely one of the best. As the series progresses, we slowly begin to know more about the side characters. This one really digs up Tray’s past.
In this episode, Ilana accidentally finds an adult video on a porn website. It appears that Tray, AKA Kirk Steele, is into filming self pleasure videos. What makes this video even more out of control is that he uses pool noodles, beach balls and whale shaped inflatables for the job. Not to mention, the video is filmed while he’s alone on Christmas AND has frosted tips.
Once Abbi finds out this information, she uses it against Tray by tricking him into letting her train for a day. Spoiler: she gets to do it! Which is something she’s been wanting to do for almost two full seasons.
And, the moral of Tray’s story is that he overcame some complicated times, ya know, being alone on Christmas and having frosted tips, and continued to thrive in his career as a fitness trainer.
Both Tray and Abbi had impactful storylines here. Ilana gets hers too!
During the Kirk Steele episode, Ilana has to babysit Oliver, a really sweet kid who comes from a boujee family, and is also thriving in learning Ilana’s important life lessons. During their time together, she encourages him to be his best self, like rocking a pair of heels, using “Yaass, queen” in the right context, donating a bunch of designer clothes his mom was getting rid of, and one of the most iconic life lessons of all: “reduce, reuse, recycle, RIHANNA.”
The four R’s, my friend
The scenes with Ilana and Oliver are simply goofy and wholesome. They were really fun to watch!
Best Broad City Episodes #4 – P*$$y Weed (Season 1, Episode 4)
When I think of this episode, I immediately think of the crying laughing emoji. What I love about it is that it’s one of the early episodes where we begin to understand Abbi and Ilana’s humor. We understand that both of their logic is really something to admire while they also balance each other out.
For example, Ilana shows up to Abbi’s apartment with a bag of weed. The bag of weed is stored inside of her vagina. Hence the episode title, “P*$$y Weed.” Once she takes it out in order for Abbi and her to spark up, Abbi is completely shocked.
“Ilana, you just pulled a bag of weed out of your vagina. Why would you do that?” Abbi asks.
Ilana goes on to assure her that she does it all the time and that it’s probably the safest way to travel with your stash. She even refers to her vagina as nature’s pocket.
Definitely one of the best Broad City episodes!
#3 – In Heat (Season 2, Episode 1)
When the temperatures reach 101 degrees in NYC, Abbi and Ilana manage to deal with the heat. An episode set in the dead heat of summer explores the inconveniences both high temps and the busy city bring.
The heat doesn’t stop Abbi from hooking up with a dude named Stacy, AKA male Stacy, played by Seth Rogen. They both still try to be desirable despite their excessive sweat. Even after male Stacy reveals that he has paper towels in his pants due to “major swamp ass.”
On the hunt for an air conditioner, Abbi and Ilana visit Bed Bath and Beyond. And boy, is it a treat! Since this is Abbi’s favorite store, she’s there A LOT. So much so that her and a couple of the employees have secret handshakes—more like mini dance routines. It’s hysterical.
When they finally leave the store with a newly purchased AC, they both put it down in the sidewalk as they hustle to hail a cab. And OBVIOUSLY someone steals it. Leaving them to resort to a Facebook post asking if anyone had a spare one.
Benny Caletri, a friend of Abbi’s roommate offers his up. When they go to pick it up, Benny is filming a vlog of him moving out. In exchange for the AC, they offer to help him fill up his U-Haul truck. When they’re done, he asks why they wanted a broken AC. They flip out of course and then are off to another back-up plan.
#2 – Coat Check (Season 2, Episode 9)
It wouldn’t be Broad City, without Abbi and Ilana getting themselves into a nutty situation.
They both are hired to work the coat check at an A-List event. While they’re there, they both get into unheard of scenarios.
Ilana is sexually attracted to a woman who weirdly looks just like her, and Abbi is left to do coat check alone. Because of this it becomes increasingly overwhelming, thus people leaving with the wrong jackets. By the end of the night, with only a few jackets left, Kelly Ripa shows up to pick up hers. Abbi brings her all of them and they come to conclusion that hers isn’t there.
Surprisingly Kelly Ripa was really cool with it but Abbi solemnly swears that she will find it and return it to her. As the episode progresses, Abbi tracks down the person who took Ms Rippa’s coat. Her and Ilana go to the guy’s apartment who took it.
She tells him it’s Kelly Ripa’s he expresses that he’s a huge fan and he wants to keep it. Angrily, Abbi and Ilana threaten him with his antique gun from the Civil War. He tells them it doesn’t shoot so Abbi threatens to smash it. He then surrenders the coat and Abbi is off to Kelly’s place.
But before that, Abbi briefly meets Ilana’s look alike lover. She points out that she looks just like Ilana and quickly Ilana is turned off. The gag is, she didn’t realize they looked alike until way after they met. They’ve hung out a few times since then and she still didn’t notice it.
Meanwhile, at Kelly Ripa’s apartment, Abbi is invited in for a drink upon returning her coat. They hit it off and spend the night drinking and doing coke. They even poke fun at the Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa feud.
Best Broad City Episodes #1 – Knockoffs (Season 2, Episode 4)
And finally for the staple in Broad City’s best moments. Season two episode episode four is one of the best episodes ever.
It’s set around the time Ilana’s grandmother’s shiva. But don’t be too sad because her grandmother lived a full life, and even f*cked Little Richard. This episode is great for many reasons but one of them is getting to meet Ilana’s mom, Bobby Wexler, who is exactly like her! They both have curly hair, bring their own nail polish to the nail salons and bring their own blindfolds when purchasing knockoff handbags from sketchy manholes in Chinatown.
Since Ilana and her mom will be seeing relatives during the shiva, she is opted in purchasing what she knows best, those Chinatown knockoff bags.
“All the good sh*t is always down a manhole.” So down the manhole they go.
While Ilana is dealing with that, Abbi finally hangs out with Jeremy, the guy in her apartment building she’s been crushing on for a while. They start making out and one thing leads to another. Abbi offers to switch positions and Jeremy gets weirdly excited. He jumps up and comes back with a lime green strap on. Only he calls it a shinjo, a custom made dildo.
Once he realizes what Abbi actually meant, he’s embarrassed. Abbi goes to the bathroom with the strap-on to process what just happened, and to make a decision if she wants to do it. Abbi pegging Jeremy is one of the most iconic moments in TV history. She’s been fantasizing about hooking up with this guy and it happened in the most unexpected ways.
But then it all goes downhill when she ruins it in the dishwasher and buys him a knockoff one.
Ilana finds out if Abbi actually did the deed while at her grandmother’s shiva, and with excitement she yells how it’s the best day of her life!
But the fun doesn’t stop there. Because Ilana’s mom loves bags, she was checking out Abbi’s bag, admiring the material inside and out. While doing this, she stumbles upon the dildo inside her bag, leading to a genuine conversation with Ilana’s family on what pegging is.
Comedy. Gold.