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‘I Hate People, People Hate Me’ Creator Bobbi Summers Made This Show for You — Not You, You

Canadian comedian Bobbi Summers takes his misanthropic style global via WOW Presents Plus.

Bobbi
Photo: Lauren Newman

A show's title has a whole lot of work to do. It needs to give you an idea of what the show is about while grabbing your attention. You want something memorable, something that ideally speaks to your intended target audience. With all that in mind, I present to you I Hate People, People Hate Me. Now that's a title. And whatever questions you still have about the show are just answered by the attitude. I don't care who the "I" is and who the "people" are, because I just get it. It's 2025 and yeah, I too hate people and people hate me.

Created by Bobbi Summers, who also stars in the series as the disaffected Jovi, I Hate People initially premiered in Canada as a short-form series on CBC Gem. Now the series comes to the United States (and the rest of the globe) via WOW Presents Plus, the streaming platform home of the international Drag Race franchise. I Hate People marks an expansion of the WOW Presents Plus ethos, as the platform's first-ever scripted series acquisition.

Now that the world is getting to the chance to meet the titular "I" and hate the titular "people," creator Bobbi Summers hopes that his little show that could finally will reach the audience of queer outliers it was made for, those who also have a "pancake ass and a death wish."

Brett White: I would start by asking, like, what is your pitch for I Hate People, People Hate Me, but I feel like the title is kind of the pitch.

Bobbi Summers: Yeah — are you asking me to pitch the show right now? Okay, log line: "Perpetually disturbed by the world around them, two friends navigate their lives as outliers in Toronto's queer community." Basically, I play Jovi, who's a failing aspiring punk musician who lives in a homophobic old lady's garage, and I'm a cashier at thick burger and I really resent the other faggos in town who have it easier than me. You know, the ones who are making mad paper on OnlyFans, the ones who can capitalize off their looks. I feel like I've been short changed by life, because I'm just stuck here with my art that nobody cares about and my pancake ass and just, like, a death wish.

Just watching the trailer for the series, it speaks to my lived queer experience. What was the response in Canada? Are all of us, I don't know, hairy, non-OnlyFan-model, punk-rock-listening queers come out to thank you?

No. I wish I could say that I was like, rolling around naked in fan mail. Nobody watched this show when it came out in Canada. And I honestly thought the journey might be over, and I was really sad about it, because we put so many years and so much love and attention into it. So WOW Presents Plus has acquired it worldwide, so it's going to be coming out again — in Canada as well — via WOW. I'm proud to be Canadian, so I'm hoping that the Canadian queers get to see it. The people who did see it loved it. Both of them.

Growing up queer, it can be so hard to see yourself on television. A lot of it is glitter and sparkles and fierce, hunty, yes. How hard was it to get this show made, with this viewpoint?

How hard was it to get this show made? I don't know, like, how hard is peace in the Middle East? It was just this impossible thing. If anyone had told me at the beginning what the odyssey was going to entail, I certainly would have put the whole thing down and went to The Eagle and danced to Dua Lipa and went home and got stoned and had a slice of pizza and gone on with my life. But you know, at some point — I don't even remember what question I'm answering.

I think we're just vibing.

I think, yeah, I think we're just riding the essence right now. At some point when I met my co-star [Lily Kazimiera], we were both stand up comedians on the — we call it the "alt comedy circuit" in Toronto. We don't perform in the clubs that are all straight dudes being like, "I hate my wife." There is a pretty cool, small but mighty scene in Toronto where there are a lot of really fucking inspiring artists doing cool things in the stand up medium. So I met Lily and I was like, "I have this pilot. I feel like it should probably be you."

Lily Bobbi
Photo: Lauren Newman

How awkward of a question is that? It's kind of like you're asking someone out in a way.

It was so long ago that I don't have the most vivid recollection of it. I kind of expected her to just brush it off, or maybe she would say yes to be polite, but then it would never actually go anywhere. But it did go somewhere, and we started rehearsing together. And before we got greenlit for Season 1, we had to shoot a proof of concept, a five minute micro pilot, and I am certainly happy that that's been erased from the internet. But there was something that happened while we were filming where it felt like there was some kind of lightning in a bottle, just seeing the two of us on-camera together. It was exciting for me from a creative standpoint. I could see such a massive universe in my brain that extends from these two characters. It kept me excited enough that I kept going, because I hoped that the end would justify the means, and I had some faith that it would — especially too when I met Gucci Pineapple.

I was gonna say, like, star quality.

The second I saw him on TikTok, I was like, "Oh my God. What a goddamn superstar. Please, please, please, please, please, read my script. Please read my script." And I don't think he would have done it if he was as famous as he is now. Maybe he would. He'll say he still would do it, but I'm like, he's so busy these days and so in demand. We were this micro budget, off-the-radar indie Canadian show, and he's based in New York. We weren't even allowed to have any Americans in the show. It's part of the contract. I sort of kept sending the network really bad Canadian auditions for his character, so that I could convince them that nobody else could play Circus except him, and eventually I convinced them.

Gucci Pineapple
Photo: Lauren Newman

How did you get to WOW Presents Plus? Were you shopping the show around or did they come to you?

No, no one has ever come to me. I'm always the one hiding in the bushes waiting for them to get home, babe. No one knocking at my door. There was always this quiet understanding between Lily and I and the executive producers, that even though we were making a Canadian show, and even though we didn't have any money, we wanted to make something world class. We wanted to make something that could exist on an HBO. We went through the process of shopping it in America, and WOW Presents — I was like, "This just makes so much sense is and it's going to give us access to so many young people who will hopefully see themselves in the material." The more I think about it, the more stoked I am that it's coming out on WOW, especially at the same time as Drag Race.

Does this deal come with a Canada's Drag Race guest judging spot?

Not yet, but I think I'm free. I would be really good at coaching people in a roast, because I have so many years of stand up under my belt. So if I ever did Drag Race, that would be what I would rub the magic lamp and ask the genie for. That would be really fun.

What does the future look like for the show? Is there a Season 2?

There's no Season 2 yet. There is one in my mind. Like, we had to sort of get canceled in Canada so that we were able to give the rights away, so I had to pitch the second season so they could formally turn it down. There are Season 2 scripts that are a longer format and more heavily feature other characters, and they are my favorite scripts I've ever written. I'm so excited about them. We filmed Season 1 two years ago. I'm still very proud of it but, you know, I'm sick to death of it and I feel like I've grown so much. So I am totally manifesting that we get to go on and make more of it, and I know that it would only get better because now I know what I'm doing. I had never acted before. I had never been a showrunner before. The whole thing was just like undergrad.

New episodes of I Hate People, People Hate Me premiere on Mondays on WOW Presents Plus

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