A Black Lady Sketch Show

'A Black Lady Sketch Show': Robin Thede on Her Bittersweet Accomplishments

Robin Thede is used to “firsts.” From 2015–16, she was the head writer for the first season and a half of “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore,” the first African-American woman to hold that position on any late-night talk show; the first black woman to write for the White House Correspondents Dinner; and of course, the first Black woman to create, showrun, write, and star in a sketch comedy series, HBO’s “ more

How Sketch Series from 'A Black Lady Sketch Show' to 'Alternatino' Balance Comedy With Commentary

When Robin Thede was in the process of writing “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” she already had a bad feeling about the state of the world. “I had a literal fever dream about the end of the world and the women living in it,” she recalls. “I came into the writers’ room the next day and said, ‘Here’s my idea for the interstitials.’” That idea morphed into the connecting segments on the HBO sketch comedy, in which four women are in a house ... more

Why 'Astronomy Club,' 'Sherman's Showcase' Choose Cultural Comedy Over Politics

Let “Saturday Night Live” do all the President Trump sketches it wants. Over on HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” there are skits that cleverly parody how slow soul food restaurants are and how it feels to be overlooked in society with a recurring bit called “Invisible Spy.” Meanwhile, “Sherman’s Showcase” on IFC pokes fun at music-driven biopics with “This Is How He Did It: The Montell Jordan Story” and gives a nod in every epi... more