Crazy Ex Girlfriend's Greg (Santino Fontana) is in a similar situation. Obviously, he's not the first bartender on TV. But the show's delicate portrayal of Greg's internal conflict between going to business school and paying his father's medical bills is refreshingly honest. While the titular ex-girlfriend, Rebecca (Rachel Bloom), is learning monetary lessons of her own for the first time — and for comedic effect — Greg's backstory is just as important, and it's a lot more realistic. Likewise, Jane the Virgin's Jane (Gina Rodriguez) faces a similar dilemma when her father, who's been paying for her graduate school classes, finds himself in financial trouble, and she returns to waitressing to pay for her education.

When Broad City first debuted its Comedy Central pilot, it was lauded for being a sort of opposite to shows like Girls and Sex and the City. Girls has been widely criticized for depicting a group of privileged white women (and men) who live in New York City without worrying too much about their financial situations. Three of the four girls have all had various non-jobs throughout Girls' history without the fear of not being able to pay their rent. Conversely, in Broad City's first episode, Abbi (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana (Ilana Glazer) take a day job cleaning someone's apartment to make money for concert tickets, only to find out it's a scam, and they don't make it to the concert in the end.

But for all of Broad City's greatness, Abbi and Ilana's lack of money also serves as a different sort of punchline. In the end, it’s difficult for viewers to relate to the pair too much, because the situations they find themselves in are so ridiculous. (Someone who's actually in a dire financial situation probably wouldn't be as flippant about their job as Ilana). In the same way, CBS' 2 Broke Girls also distances itself from this new set of shows — the idea of two millennials living illegally in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, also seems too absurd to believe.

In some ways, Broad City may have paved the way for this new crop of shows, and it's great to see financial standing depicted in so many different forms. But for characters like Chip, Martha, Amy, Jonah, Greg, and Cece, their financial status isn't the butt of a joke — it's just real life. It might not be as fun as a closet filled with Manolos or a day smuggling bags of lotion home from a fancy gym, but that's probably not a bad thing.

An earlier version of this article stated that the main characters of 2 Broke Girls live rent-free. While the girls are living in their apartment illegally, they do pay an unofficial rent to someone at their building, as of the fifth season.