Quinta Brunson, a Child of the Internet, Revives the Sitcom
b'Quinta Brunson made a name for herself as a master of meme comedy and is a self-described \\u201cchild of the Internet,\\u201d yet her ABC mockumentary series \\u201cAbbott Elementary\\u201d is an unabashed throwback to the sitcoms of her youth. Doreen St. F\\xe9lix talked with Brunson at the 2022 New Yorker Festival about her influences and the everyday comedy of the workplace. St. F\\xe9lix believes that Brunson has found \\u201cfreedom in formula\\u201d when it comes to \\u201cAbbott,\\u201d which documents the lives of the beleaguered staff at a Philadelphia public school. \\u201cThere is nothing that I could do,\\u201d Brunson says, \\u201cor [that] anyone can do that is more triumphant than someone going to their shitty job.\\u201d Writing in the wake of shows like \\u201cBlack-ish,\\u201d Brunson relishes being able to center her story on Black people without addressing topical issues about race; the school is its own self-enclosed world. Just surviving, she thinks, provides its own form of liberation. \\u201cSo much has happened to Black people,\\u201d she says. \\u201cWhy are we still here? . . . We really could have called it quits a long time ago, and somehow we just keep going. It\\u2019s crazy to me.\\u201d'