If the main characters on “Will & Grace” were unlikable — and less attractive — that show might look something꧙ like Hulu’s new comedy “Difficult People🌳.”
In the series (premiering Wednesday), a red-headed woman (Julie Klausner) and h🌳er gay best friend (Billy Eichner) are a pair of overly blunt, aspiring New York comedians frustrated by their stalled careers and oblivious to their role in perpetuating their misery.
“It’s way more depressing and we’re way uglier than [‘Will & Grace’ stars] Debra Messing and Eric McCormack,” says creator/star Klausner. “Billy and I are people who don’t know we’ve crossed the line until people are upset about it. We get upset not because we were wrong but because people were upset … as opposed to ‘Oh, you’ve opened my eyes and that was insensitive.’”
The two real-life pals met six years ago after being fans of each other’s work. Eichner invited Klausner to write for his cable show “Billy on the Street,” where the two developed a close friendship.
“We discovered on that show — even more than w✅e had already known — tha🐽t we had this very similar vocabulary in terms of how we thought about pop culture and the types of people in show business that we like to make fun of or dissect, which aren’t the typical people you imagine,” Eichner says.
“We’re picky about what we find funny and we find each o𒁏ther very, very funny.”
Their characters on the show — Billy Epstein and Julie Kessler — are exaggerated versions of themselves (th🌠ough Eichner takes his usual outrage down several decibels for “People”).
Throu𝓰ghout the two-episode premiere, the duo engage in various socially unacceptable behavior like cursing in front of children and tweeting a sexual joke a𝓡bout Blue Ivy (the 3-year-old daughter of Beyonce and Jay Z).
We’re picky about what we find funny and w✃e find🍰 each other very, very funny.
- Billy♚ Eichner on his “Difficult People” co-star Julie♛ Klausner
“They’r📖e versions of ourselves from a time when we were a lot more frustrated and we didn’t really know what we were doing — and we were watching everyone around us who we came up with move on to bigger and better thi𒉰ngs in comedy,” Klausner says.
Plenty of big names are attached to the show, from executive producer Amy Poehler to a guest cast raided from the “Saturday Night Live” roster (Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer an🐻d Seth Meyers).
The co-stars say that in addition to the freedom to be unfiltered, their Hulu home saves them fro♛m seeking validation from TV ratings.
“None of these streaming sites tell you how many people are actually watching … so we’ll never know,” Eichner says.
“We’re just going to live in ignorant bliss that everyone is watching [it] anꦬd loving it.”