My job: The comedy pilot that never got picked up
My job: The comedy pilot that never got picked up
Fact: “Abbott Elementary” is as delightful as “A Black Lady Sketch Show”
Writer’s note: This post was first published on Medium’s “Tickled” on January 16, 2022 and will now be permanently housed on Substack’s new “Tickled” column.
If you haven’t watched Quinta Brunson in ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” you’re missing out. As much as I pouted about her leaving the equally funny “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” I knew Quinta was onto something as soon as I saw the duo sketch between her and Tyler James Williams on “ABLSS.” I didn’t know the star of “Everybody Hates Chris” could pull off a starring role, but he’s killing it, too.
And as much as I’m laughing through “ABLSS,” I’m having “I feel attacked” moments because I’ve lived this life — even though I’m not an elementary school teacher. Here are the top five moments I have had in real life that rival what’s happening on the show.
Abbott Elementary: Quinta’s character Janine Teagues told Jacob Hill (played by Chris Perfetti) to stop talking about his experience traveling to Africa. (Failed allies love to bring this up.)
In real life: One of my co-workers found out another one was going on vacation to Africa. Instead of just waiting to see her photos when she came back, he sent us daily emails of safari images he found on Google — and cc:ed her on the images as though she couldn’t find a real-life example of one in the Motherland.
Abbott Elementary: Jacob was at it again, leaping his way to greet the new substitute teacher Gregory Eddie (played by Tyler James Williams) with a hug and chest pound — solely because he was black.
In real life: Our news writing team hired a former intern as a full-time Digital News Editor. The same guy who sent the safari images (from previous story) greeted him (black guy) by sending out a welcome email with an image of Alonzo and Jake (i.e., Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in “Training Day”) attached. The intern (who I was a former mentor of) was gracious enough to ignore the email entirely, but one of our other team members decided to yell out, “HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE DENZEL!”