“In winter, you tend to get a little bit more sad and a little bit more, ‘What am I doing with my life?'” Jacobson says. “These characters are getting older, and when you’re in your mid to late 20s, you’re like, ‘What do I do?'”

Reality has set in for the girls, and that reality includes today’s political climate — the pair have been bleeping any mentions of POTUS’ name — which Jacobson says only affects the season’s tone, not the entire season itself. Below, the pair preview the comedy’s fourth installment, what it means to make a “darker” Broad City for their characters, and which guest stars surprised them the most.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: It’s been a while since season 3. What were your goals going into season 4?
ABBI JACOBSON: First and foremost, for the show to be funny and for us to explore these characters in a new fresh way that we haven’t done before, but also to grow and maintain the friendship and the comedy that we have established already. But in this season, we had this big hiatus, and it’s been a year and a half since we’ve been on and the election happened, so there were definitely more things that we wanted to talk about, including the current political climate.

How much of a challenge was it for you guys to be more topical this season?
ILANA GLAZER: Well, I guess we haven’t been as vocal about our politics because I think when Obama was president, while our show was on during season 1 through 3, it felt like in America, or at least more in New York, there was this agreed-upon [view on] politics… And then with this election, it just seemed like it’s too risky to not be fully precise about what you mean. I think we want to highlight these core beliefs that this year just felt like had to be articulated. Saying what we believed or how we feel as oppressed women, I think we were less afraid of feeling like it was too much.

JACOBSON: Dealing with directly talking about the election or that type of thing is a little bit different from something bad happening in one of the character’s personal lives and turning that into humor. At the end of the day, and not to make a grand statement or whatever, just, a lot of times, the most humor can be found in the s—tiest things, in the saddest times. That’s why comedy is so important.

JACOBSON: Yeah, in the beginning.

GLAZER: You know that thing that Michael Kors does, where he’s like [raises voice] “He’s a wackadoo!”

JACOBSON: So insane. A wack-a-doo.

JACOBSON: Nothing has changed so dramatically that you’re going to be unfamiliar with the world, but the show this season has sort of a shift emotionally that matches the stuff we want to talk about. Because in winter you get — I mean, maybe not everyone — but you tend to get a little bit more sad and it’s a little bit more lonely and a little bit more, “What am I doing with my life?” kind of mentality than when the sun is out. You know, these characters are getting older, and you start to get to a point — or at least I did — when you’re in New York and you’re in your mid to late 20s and you’re like, “What the f—, what do I do?” Luckily, these characters have each other, and it’s still a very upbeat show in a lot of ways, but they’re starting to get to that point, they’re trying to figure out what they’re gonna do next.

I’m assuming Abbi takes that more seriously than Ilana does?
GLAZER: I think Ilana’s following a similar thread for sure. I feel like the mentality [for both of them] is definitely darker. Both women are seeing the bigger picture when we start with them in episode 2, but Ilana’s definitely darker and a little bit more desperate. I think it fluctuates this season, and I think that’s true of this show in general, but also maybe it was more pronounced this year for different reasons… I feel like throughout this season, these girls have their ups and downs in every episode, which is how the world feels these days, just things are so extreme, but Ilana’s definitely at a loss when we first see her this season in present day.

JACOBSON: Yeah, and Abbi starts off the other way.

GLAZER: Yeah, and I don’t even know why, like, they have a higher height to fall from…

JACOBSON: It’s kind of like when you have a job for a little while, like, a couple of years, and then you don’t have that job anymore. If you don’t find a permanent job right away, you kind of bounce back and forth between these quicker jobs, and I think we find both of them sort of in that mode. Like you can’t find what you’re doing.

GLAZER: I thought of somebody who is surprising: Shania Twain. She’s really so funny, and, how’d you describe it, Abbi? Not blue, but, like, naughty and hilarious on our show, and that is kind of shocking.

JACOBSON: Her sense of humor about herself as this icon in the world of Broad City, her self-awareness of being down to joke about herself as an icon, that was shocking. [Laughs]

Broad City returns Wednesday, Sept. 13, at 10:30 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.