Until yesterday, the most memorable part about the “Abbi’s Mom” episode of Broad City, which aired a month ago, was the SAD lamp that Ilana dragged into Sushi Mambeaux, the seemingly Sex and the City-inspired restaurant where she’s been working this season. But that changed when eight women came forward to tell the Washington Post that now-fired PBS and CBS personality Charlie Rose had sexually harassed them.
Suddenly, a line in “Abbi’s Mom,” written by Ilana Glazer, seemed especially prescient. You’ll recall that in the episode, Abbi’s mom (played by Peri Gilpin, aka Roz from Frasier) comes to visit and requests a “naughty girls night out” with her daughter. Weed is smoked, and the first thing Abbi’s mom says, when high, is: “You know who else I think smokes a lot of this? Charlie Rose.” She explains: “That voice and the way he shoots the show like he’s in a black hole.”
Abbi agrees: “Yeah, there’s no walls.”
And then, out of nowhere, comes the line. Abbi’s mom makes an ew face and says, “God, I would not wanna f[bleep] him.”
Abbi doesn’t agree or disagree, and just tells her mom, “Dude, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say f[bleep] like that before.”
When I watched this last month, the Charlie Rose line seemed like an odd throwaway, and a curious putdown to make given that Broad City writer/director Lucia Aniello appeared on the show back in July.
Now the burn rings especially true. It’s almost like Ilana went back in time to insert it into the script. Hey, anything’s possible with a time-traveling bong.
Update, 1:40pm: This post was updated to reflect news that Rose has been terminated from CBS and PBS.