Over 150,000 fans and artists swarmed New York City’s Javits Center this weekend, at the ninth annual New York Comic Con. This year, the New York convention beat out the flagship San Diego one, hosted earlier this year, in attendance. Over four days, costumed fans attended autographing events, star-studded panels, charity art auctions and early film and TV screenings.
Among the many famed attendees at this year’s symposium, were the the creators and stars of both Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty” and Comedy Central’s “Broad City.” Each hosted panels to answer fan questions and discuss what’s in store for their upcoming seasons.
At the “Broad City” panel, the show’s stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer both danced on to the stage, and even danced around a cosplayer dressed as a character from “The Walking Dead,” who attempted to move to the back of the room.
What was once a web series, “Broad City” features Abbi and Ilana, two best friends taking on city life. The show, produced by Amy Poehler, will be returning for its second season in January.
When asked about the biggest surprises of transitioning from making webisodes to making a full-fledged television show, they both said that getting to work with new people was the biggest adjustment.
“We had this grip named Rocko who we ended up having play a guy jerking off on a park bench in the episode ‘Apartment Hunters,’” Glazer said. “I never would have known about him before 2009, so I wouldn’t have done something like that.”
When asked how much they’re like their characters on the show, Glazer appeared readily prepared to address the topic.
“About 15 percent,” Glazer said. “It’s like my fucking nuttiest and Abbi’s fucking craziest.”
Jacobson and Glazer also gave advice on trying to make comedy. They said that it was better to make as much content as possible; to focus less on what will make you famous and more on what will be the best thing you personally can do.
“A lot of people will keep waiting and perfecting what they have,” Jacobson said. “When they finally release it people are like, ‘This is good, but I haven’t really seen much else from you.’”
They then closed off by showing a clip from the upcoming season, where viewers can see just how much Abbi loves Bed, Bath & Beyond. When trying to buy an air conditioner, it became clear that Abbi has secret handshakes with the employees.
“Rick and Morty,” an animated series, features Rick, a mad scientist, who lives with his grandson Morty. Together, they travel through dimensions of time and space.
The show’s co-creator Justin Roiland began his panel by answering questions about the show’s art style. When asked why all the characters’ eyes looked like buttholes, he was prepared with a genuine answer.
“I saw the storyboards and just said ‘This is too nice,’” said Roiland, adding that “It’s also a callback to the original shorts I did on Channel 101.”
Roiland expanded on his unique art style by explaining why he tries to make almost every alien on the show have noticeable genitals.
“We had storyboards that our writers could put stuff they liked on it,” Roiland said, “I would always see they had silly stuff like butts on it and just thought ‘This is what they like, let’s do it.’”
Co-creator Dan Harmon also said that a big part of the writing process involved Roiland coming into the writers’ room to see what was being worked on and then acting out the idea in the voices of the main characters.
“If Justin was just having a conversation about how stupid the idea was,” Harmon said, “you knew he wasn’t on board.”
Harmon then addressed how the episodes tend to mix silly with serious.
“We always try to have an A side and a B side” Harmon said, “The A side will be Rick going up to Morty and telling him they have to go to get shmoobies from planet schmoople and the B side will be a Woody Allen type story of someone’s marriage falling apart.”
They also made sure to discuss what’s in store for the next season. Harmon in particular was quick to establish that the characters Beth and Jerry would continue to face marital troubles in season two.
“They’re always about one minute from divorce,” Harmon said, explaining that one of the episodes would be about the two characters going to another planet for marriage counseling.
The panel ended with a montage of clips from the upcoming season which displayed all of Rick’s new catchphrases. Fan favorite “Wubuhlubbadubdub” is back in addition to having hard hitters like “Schmibipity pow,” “Eggs,” and a favorite among the crowd, “You can lic-lic-lic-lick my balls.”
“I want each of these catchphrases put on a shirt at Hot Topic” Roiland said.