Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Brilliantly original sketch show is fresh, raunchy, funny.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
A Black Lady Sketch Show
What's the Story?
Created, written, and starring an all-female, all-black team, A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW turns its irreverent gaze on just what's funny about being a black woman in America today. Unrealistic beauty standards? A wedding with a groom who can't commit to "I do"? A CIA spy who's practically invisible on her spy missions because her "regular looking face" renders her invisible to both women and men? Hot takes on "Romeo and Juliet" and 227? With a voice that's both surreal and inventive, this sketch show goes to some very unusual places and finds plenty to laugh at.
Is It Any Good?
Strange, subversive, and surreal, this sketch show isn't laugh-out-loud hilarious every second, but it's so dazzlingly original that even when it's not, it's still a joy to watch. Its bona fides may make viewers fear they're about to get a blast of overly earnest comedy: Comedy's first all-black and all-female writer's room crafts the jokes, the sketches are directed by a black female director (Dime Davis, Boomerang), and the main cast is made up entirely of black women. But instead of skewing preachy, the show leans brilliant and bizarre instead, taking us to places we've never been before: a support group for bad bitches, a Motown revue in which a singer goes rogue, a drag "Basic Ball" in which average women are celebrated ("She's doing errands!" enthuses emcee Caldwell Tidicue, aka "Bob the Drag Queen." "She has all her receipts!").
Speaking of Tidicue, another great thing about A Black Lady Sketch Show is the absolute bananas parade of guest stars: Angela Bassett, the fierce leader of the Bad Bitches, Patti Labelle, David Alan Grier, Kelly Rowland. As they and the regular cast race wildly through topics like Fenty highlighter, cocoa butter lotion, the Britney Spears cover of Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative," writing love poetry to Cornell Woolrich, it quickly becomes apparent that not only is this show speaking loudly and specifically to an oft-ignored segment of comedy fans, it's illuminating a whole new set of truths. It's about time.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how sketch comedy shows centered on people of color have a distinguished TV history -- e.g., In Living Color, Key & Peele, Chappelle's Show. How much presence did women have on these shows? Did the sketches tend to focus on female stories and concerns, or were women side characters? How often were women played not by women, but by men dressing up as women? Why do you think that is?
A Black Lady Sketch Show airs on HBO, not network television. Why? What types of audiences do pay cable stations seek to reach, and how are they different from network audiences? Does this type of comedy need the freedom of pay cable to focus on mature content and subjects? Would the show still be funny without this type of mature content?
Did any of the sketches on this series make you reconsider a point of view you hold, or see something in a different light? Do you think these sketches are intended to? Can humor create social change? How?
TV Details
- Premiere date : August 9, 2019
- Cast : Robin Thede , Quinta Brunson , Ashley Nicole Black
- Network : HBO
- Genre : Comedy
- TV rating :
- Last updated : December 8, 2025
Did we miss something on diversity?
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