With decisive wins in four out of five states this week, Hillary Clinton has made it all but impossible for Bernie Sanders to catch up in the delegate count. But in order to win the general election this fall, she needs to do something about her problem with young voters. A recent poll found that millennial women back Sanders over Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin.
Clinton’s previous efforts to solve this troubling age gap have found her sitting down with Lena Dunham for a revealing interview and doing the Whip/Nae Nae with Ellen DeGeneres. But if there is one thing that could actually help put her over the top with young women in particular, it might just be her cameo on tonight’s episode of Broad City.
The episode finds Ilana delivering a package to her Brooklyn campaign headquarters after she finally lost her “job” at Deals, Deals, Deals and ends up taking a temp gig as a bike messenger. As Ilana puts it, she’s a “BM queen,” and she means it “both ways.”
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Ilana is so inspired by the very idea of Hillary Clinton that she decides to start volunteering on the spot. She introduces herself as “Ilana Rodham Wexler” to her new supervisor, played by none other than Cynthia Nixon. But when she finds out she’s not actually getting paid, she decides to call it quits.
The scene everyone has been waiting for doesn’t come until the very end of the episode when Abbi visits her bestie at Clinton HQ. “She’s walked on this floor, she’s breathed in this air,” Ilana tells Abbi of Clinton, inhaling deeply. “That smells decisive.”
“That smells like confidence,” Abbi adds, to which Ilana replies, “It smells like no bullshit.”
When Clinton herself walks into the room, they full-on lose control of their emotional stability. “Sorry, we are just so excited,” Ilana apologizes.
“It’s all right, just take your time,” a game Clinton says in response, glancing at Ilana’s nametag. “Thank you, Ilana, thank you for all of your help.”
Ilana tells the candidate that while she can’t actually afford to work there for free, she will vow to tweet out, “Vote for Hillary. Yas, yas, yas,” at least once a week.
“That would be great,” Clinton replies. “We need to drum up some excitement for the campaign, do everything that we possibly can.”
The scene was reminiscent of Joe Biden’s 2012 cameo on Parks and Recreation. As Leslie Knope, Amy Poehler (an executive producer of Broad City) lost all ability to speak coherently while in Biden’s presence. “You don’t let anything happen to him, do you understand me?” Knope told the Secret Service on her way out the door. “He is precious cargo!”
Speaking about Clinton’s cameo from SXSW this past week, Jacobson insisted that they “were not trying to make a political statement” with the episode. “Regardless of where we stand—and we love Hillary—Hillary is such an iconic figure. That’s someone that, being around someone like that, these girls being around her is not an everyday thing. That’s how we felt being around her. It was like, ‘Oh, this is a different world.’”
“Because she’s this icon,” Glazer added. “We’re trying to make really good TV. I think you’ll watch the episode and think you’ll agree that it’s a great episode of TV.”
As always, Jacobson and Glazer did put out a “great episode of TV.” Whether it will help Clinton recruit more young women like them for her team has yet to be seen.
