I stumbled upon ABG after watching a few webisodes of The "F" Word series, following The Fly Guys, an aspiring trio of hilarious young guys trying to produce the hit song that will send them rocketing towards the music industry signing and fame they seek. Each time the group members sense the inevitability of their dream being realised, they play out their amusing trademark group finger gesticulation: one that would make ET proud! Foolishly I thought I could watch just one and then get back to whatever work I was doing. How wrong I was; I spent the best part of a weekend watching all available webisodes, but it was worth it because it led me on to ABG!
From the very first episode I was hooked and as soon as it had finished, I was wondering: who is this person behind this addictive web series? I felt so grateful that someone on planet earth had not only acknowledged the existence of ABGs, but had made me smile in recognising some of my own awkward quirks. It was not surprising to see so many fans on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube expressing their affinity with the protagonist J and her awkwardness.
Each episode is narrated by J (played by Issa Rae, the writer and director of ABG and The F-Word). J’s passive aggressive interactions are contrasted by the unfettered and candid dialogue in her head, which pulls no punches. This combined with the humour of the other characters and the parodies of Save the Last Dance, The Colour Purple and other well-known films makes for some mash-your-hand-into-the-keyboard moments of hysterical laughter.
It was after watching the 5th episode of ABG and laughing so hard the juice I was drinking spurted from my nose (something I hadn’t managed to replicate since the age of 7), that I just had to do
something to show my appreciation. I’m sure it takes a lot of hard work to write, direct and act in a series and I felt I had an obligation to express my gratitude in some way.
And so, I sent a message offering to send Issa Rae some YouLike IMake earrings as a thank you for the laughter. She accepted and said she might even be able to feature the earrings in the next ABG episode. As you can imagine, I played it cool and wrote up a contract demanding Ms Rae ensure
each of my earrings had to have at least 1 minute of time on screen with several close-up shots and pauses after each scene to highlight my website … or else the earrings stayed in London. No, just kidding!
To my delight, (after hyperventilating into a brown paper bag) I set to work and within a week, I made, packed, sent and tracked a few of my pretties from London to their new home 5435 miles away in Los Angeles.
It has been a few days now, but still beaming with pride, I am pleased to present Episode 6: “The Stapler” of ABG, featuring YouLike IMake studs in scene 1 (worn by J) and also in the anger management class (worn by silently vexed lady on the far-right).
Thank you Issa Rae and please continue to make more ABG… and The "F" Word!