I start my interview with online sketch comedy duo Alberta Poon and Cara Swift with a question about a shit pile. It appears in the first episode of their web series Scorpiono andâto meâit looks like real dog shit. âMy late doggy shit in his little area and I didnât pick it up for days,â sighs Poon.
âIt still wasnât that much,â Swift adds. âWe put a plank over a rock so we could prop it up and we shot it from an angle to make the dog shit look huge.â
âEver sinceââ they say in unison.
âThe angle of looking up at somethingââ Swift continues.
âTo make it appear monstrous,â Poon cuts in, âhas been the Dog Shit Angle!â
âEvery videographer that didnât work on that first episode has to deal with it,â Swift says, before Poon cuts in again.
âWeâre like, âYâknow. Make it look epic. Dog. Shit. Angle.ââ
The interview continues this way: Poon and Swift finish each otherâs sentences and frequently speak in unison, which fits with the concept of Scorpionoâa sketch comedy show about two women sharing a zodiac sign and an apartment that was inspired by the humor of their intense friendship.
That also makes it easy to compare Scorpiono to Comedy Centralâs Broad City. Both shows have been around for about the same amount of time, but Swift and Poon didnât see Broad City until their show was already out. âWe didnât know about Broad City,â Alberta says. âBut as our first and second episodes came out, everyone kept asking, âHave you seen this show? Itâs exactly like you guys.â And we were like, âNooooooooo. Whhhhhhy?â It psyched me out a little. They have such a similar sense of humor. Iâm afraid of accidentally writing the same joke as them.â
While you can tell Scorpiono is a show made by friends on a budget of nothingââI would say every single episode uses a different camera,â Poon admitsâthereâs a strong attention to visual beauty (e.g., outfit game, use of pixelated zoom, etc.). Swiftâs more stoic humor would be easy to overlook on a stage, but in the show her border-pushing creepiness and sly running gags get equal play. Scorpiono also has a catchy theme song written by Poon and her bandmate Mike McKinnon of the groups Wet Confetti and Reporter. âAre you guys sick of your theme song?â I ask Poon and Swift.
âWhat? No way,â they say in unison.
âIâll play that song at my funeral,â Poon adds.