According to Thede, "there are no shows like ours – an all Black-lady sketch show in the history of American television, period. It's also become a historical moment in history to represent how far we've come, but also how much progress have yet to make. "And it's taken us so long with the COVID-19 shutdowns to get this season out, but we knew people were waiting for it and that's such a beautiful thing to have people wait for us. I'm so happy that people missed it so much and resonate with the show so much, especially Black women because we make it for us."Ī post shared by Robin Thede ABLSS first debuted on HBO, it's done more than offer lighthearted laughs for its audience. "This season, more than anything, we really wanted to radiate joy because it's been such a hard year," Thede says. According to Thede, this season is both a reward and love letter to those who have waited for the show to return for the past year and a half. Black women raised me, and I am a Black woman, so it's like how do I pay back that love that I got?"Īfter a grueling year of global health issues and a nationwide racial reckoning, it was important that ABLSS be a beacon of light for people during such a dark time. It's an act of love and it's such a simple thing to do. "The work I do is to celebrate Black women. "At the end of the day, I'm making a sketch comedy show, I'm not saving the world," she says. ABLSS is rebellious by nature because it does what many forms of media have failed to do for Black women – given us a platform to be our true authentic selves. We can truly do it all and that is one of the really fun things that I enjoy about the show."įor Thede, the show is not about sending any one particular message to viewers. So for us, it's about showcasing the range of types of people we can be and the limitlessness of our abilities, not only as performers but as characters as well. There's not one type of Black woman on the show, in fact, there's hundreds. "People say, 'well how can A Black Lady Sketch Show be diverse?' Well, it's diverse because we have all different types of Black women. By her definition of diversity, ABLSS does more than just displaying the range of Black women's shades and hues, it also highlights our quirks and personalities in a way that doesn't make us out to be caricatures, unlike other shows in comedy history. She made it clear that the show doesn't follow any particular theme other than continuing to spotlight Black women in every which way that we come. So watching what's happening in Hollywood is not true diversity in that definition."
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Diversity is where people get to show up as their full human, three-dimensional selves and be accepted for who they are. "I think too often when we use the word 'diverse' we use it to say people are Black and white in a project, but to me, that's not diversity – that's just not homogenous. "I think our existence is the revolutionary part of this show and diversity amongst Black women," she shares.
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This group of ladies all act as a sisterhood, encouraging each other to push the envelope for our community any way they can through their skits and improv.Īfter filming the show's sophomore season amid the pandemic, series creator Thede spoke to us about how ABLSS continues to humanize Black women by showing us in all of our different facets and shades, and how the series is breaking barriers for more of its kind to exist in the TV landscape.
The show's core cast is comprised of veteran actresses Robin Thede, Ashley Nicole Black and Gabrielle Dennis, as well as newcomers Laci Mosley and Skye Townsend. Though the show is naturally hilarious in its various skits and outrageous characters, viewers found joy in the fact that the show also created a way to use comedy to shed light on Black issues.ĪBLSS, now returning for its second season, has doubled down on its focus to put Black women front and center with the help of some new castmates.
It was the very essence of the show being created, written, produced, directed and starring Black women that made it a revolutionary staple in pop culture. Nearly two years ago, A Black Lady Sketch Show premiered on HBO as the first and only sketch comedy show to center the Black woman's perspective in TV history.
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