‘Big Mouth’ made a great point with its ‘Pen15’ crossover

Welcome to Thanks, I Love It, our series highlighting something onscreen we’re obsessed with this week. 

If the existence of two very good shows can constitute a golden age in a particular subgenre of television, then we are living in a golden age of the puberty comedy. Netflix’s Big Mouth and Hulu’s Pen15 are both incredible series that allow millennials of a certain age to relive and reexamine the horrors of middle school in refreshing, funny, and more than occasionally gross ways. While Big Mouth leans on outlandish animation and the conceit of visible “hormone monsters” to process the repulsive facts of achieving adulthood, Pen15 uses the increasingly effective concept of adult actors Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine playing pre-teen versions of themselves to delve into the inherent drama of growing up. 

Big Mouth and Pen15 have been compared to each other because of their similar subject matter, but the fourth episode of Big Mouth’s fourth season brought the two shows together for a hilarious semi-crossover that outlines both shows’ overarching messages about their characters. When Big Mouth leads Andrew and Nick realize everyone in their grade is dating except for them, they decide to ask out two younger (7th grade, to be exact) girls because they think they’ll be easier to make out with. Those girls are Izzy and Misha, two thinly veiled analogues for Pen15’s Anna and Maya voiced by Konkle and Erskine. 

Izzy and Misha may be younger than Andrew and Nick, but they have a sense of self-possession neither of the boys could have anticipated. The big reveal that the girls aren’t cool with older guys pressuring them to make out happens when the show’s animated camera pulls out to show that Izzy and Misha aren’t guest starring on Andrew and Nick’s show (a meta acknowledgement of Big Mouth itself), but are actually the female leads of their own sitcom called Cafeteria Girls. In Izzy and Misha’s show, Nick and Andrew are one-off villains who serve to teach the girls self respect, and the “episode” of Cafeteria Girls ends with Izzy and Misha humiliating their terrible almost boyfriends in front of a live studio audience. 

That sitcom moment hearkens back to the most recent season of Pen15, which put intense focus on the conditioning young women like Anna and Maya (the characters) endure to make them think that being a girl is . Pen15 is excellent at translating the embarrassing minutia of girlhood into the main event in their show, just as Big Mouth trains a microscope on puberty in general. By making Izzy and Misha the stars of their own show in the Big Mouth meta-universe, they remind Andrew, Nick, and the entire viewing audience that seventh grade girls are the main characters in their own lives and narratives, and that boys who attempt to reduce them to objects are merely hurdles to overcome — even when those boys believe themselves to be the main characters of their own show…and reality as a whole. 

 By making Izzy and Misha the stars of their own show in the “Big Mouth” meta-universe, they remind Andrew, Nick, and the entire viewing audience that seventh grade girls are the main characters in their own lives and narratives.

It’s worthy to note that this crossover actually happening is unusual in streaming television because Big Mouth is a Netflix exclusive show and Pen15 is a Hulu original. Big Mouth has crossed over with other Netflix exclusive shows, like when a Season 3 episode included the Fab Five from Netflix’s Queer Eye and a later Season 4 episode has a sequence inspired by and featuring Natasha Lyonne’s Russian Doll character. A interview with Big Mouth co-creator Andrew Goldberg revealed that the cross-platform synergy stemmed from writer Gabe Liedman’s work on both shows and that the collaboration with Erskine and Konkle (who are co-creators of Pen15) gave them an opportunity to show that boys aren’t the “only ones who can be horny and gross.”

Big Mouth’s strong cast of female characters including Missy, Jessie, Lola, and Connie the Hormone Monster is a testament to the show’s dedication to normalizing the horny grossness of middle school girls, but adding Izzy/Anna and Misha/Maya to the mix was a breakout moment for the show. The greater message that one’s personal puberty hell is actually one story out of billions is important for Andrew and Nick to internalize, and it shines a metatextual light on the idea that children learn damaging information about their bodies and desires concurrently with damaging information about their gender roles and importance in the world. It’s rare that a pair of guest stars recontextualize the leading players in any show, but Big Mouth and Pen15 made it look easy. 

So for anyone who came away from the “Cafeteria Girls” episode of Big Mouth wishing they could watch the Cafeteria Girls show as a spinoff…boy does Hulu have good news for you. 

Big Mouth Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix. Pen15 Season 2 is streaming now on Hulu. 

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