TV

5 things ‘Broad City’ offers that ‘Girls’ doesn’t

Cult favorite web series “Broad City” burst from online obscurity last week. It got picked up by Comedy Central, with current queen of television comedy Amy Poehler (who has appeared in one episode) onboard as executive producer.

The New York-set series stars Upright Citizens Brigade alumnae Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson as two broke 20-somethings navigating the world of sex, drugs, relationships and Lil Wayne concerts around the city. So, naturally, it immediately drew comparisons to HBO’s critically acclaimed “Girls,” which also features young females in New York City.

The shows aren’t really that similar: “Broad City” is an outlandish and raunchy basic-cable comedy; “Girls” is a generational dramedy with moments of nudity (thanks, premium cable).

Here are five things “Broad City” offers that you won’t find on “Girls.”

The DIY aesthetic

“Girls” felt like a gilded baby when it arrived on the air in 2012: Creator Lena Dunham already had a movie under her belt, and she populated the show with actors who were the children of famous artists or journalists (NBC anchor Brian Williams, playwright David Mamet, Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke). Producer Judd Apatow got onboard, giving the show a slickly produced, showbiz feel.

“Broad City” is more of a grassroots effort churned out from the salt mines of Internet videos. Jacobson and Glazer met at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater and in 2009 started posting extremely low-budget webisodes.

“With the show, it just felt like a bigger crew,” Jacobson told comedy Web site Splitsider, “but that we were still kinda stealing shots, which is real fun.”

Absurdity

“Girls” hews close to the bone of the current Brooklyn scene, with all its hordes of scruffy freelancers posting up in coffee shops, warehouse parties and so many crisscrossing sexual streams you’d need a Google spreadsheet to keep track. “Broad City” offers more offbeat adventures, as seen in this classic Webisode “I Heart New York,” where the two race across a busy New York neighborhood with help from Poehler, only to have her felled by an assault of loose oranges.

Raunch

Dunham has gotten us used to seeing her naked body in a casual way throughout three seasons of “Girls.” On “Broad City,” we’re treated to a different kind of raunch. Let’s just say there is a lot of use of vibrators (both in the online and TV versions). And toilet humor, too, like in this clip of the two discussing lunch while on the throne:

Individuals, not archetypes

Sure, Abbi is the more introverted character, and Ilana is the more outgoing one, but other than that, they’re not that easy to pin down. Too often female characters get penned into character archetypes: there’s the wild one (Jessa, from “Girls”), the naive one (Shoshanna) or the pretty one (Marnie). Ilana and Abbi are more unpredictable — in one episode they might be tapdancing in the park, in another they might be rebuffing a catcaller on the street, but wherever they are, they act like fully actualized human characters.

Hustling

Abbi and Ilana need money to get to the Lil Wayne concert (a scenario we can all sympathize with), so they get creative. Ilana steals office supplies from her work and returns them to an Office Depot-type store, then trades the gift card for a bag of weed. They go to the park and drum when they need extra cash, and get desperate enough that they even solicit themselves to clean a stranger’s (Fred Armisen) apartment in their underwear for money.

The protagonists of “Girls” are, by design, not hustlers. They bask in the expanded aura of their parents’ benevolence, and can never ditch the yoke of entitlement that makes them act like they deserve better, without ever really working for it. Watching Dunham’s Hannah character moan about how she’s broke can get old, but watching the “Broad City” girls hit the streets and hustle is a refreshing depiction of 20-somethings trying anything they can to hold onto the bucking bronco of New York City.

Catch the second episode of the season Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.