"We're black and we're all stars. And like most stars, nobody knows our names."
— Keisha Zollar, explaining the origins of their troupe name
Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show is a Sketch Show featuring an all-black sketch comedy troupe originating from the Upright Citizens Brigade. The cast includes Shawtane Bowen, Jonathan Braylock, Ray Cordova, Caroline Martin, Jerah Milligan, Monique Moses, Keisha Zollar, and James III, who have been performing together since 2014 at UCB and the New York circuit.
The Comedy Central Originals were released on September 21, 2018. The Netflix series debuted on December 6, 2019.
The Netflix series provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Brown: Shawtane. In "For the Culture," Ray's Puerto Rican date starts speaking to him in Spanish.Shawtane: People think I'm Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Samoan, Tongan, Korean... I once had an agent tell me I look like an Asian Kevin Spacey. But, I'm black... and Native American... and Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Korean, Sephardic Jew.
- Anthropomorphic Food: The gingerbread family
, who are quite suddenly wiped out and eaten by a normal human family. - Aside Glance:
- At the end of "An Old Fashioned Shade Off," Lady Fiona looks into the camera as she lays dying "in the shade."
- At the end of the cold open of "Full House But Black," the two executives reassure the other whose porn starts playing that there is nothing to be ashamed of in watching black porn, and then both slowly turn to look into the camera. Doubles as a Call-Back to the "Poonlight" sketch.
- Butt-Monkey: Nobody likes James. Not even the show editors: in "Birthday Party," in which the Clubhouse celebrates Monique's birthday, they immediately cut away when he tells us that it's also his birth-
- Confession Cam: Each cast member uses the Confession Cam to disparage one another... especially James.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Whoever wrote the Soul Food: For People Who Feel Insecure About Their Blackness cookbook that Caroline uses.Keisha: Nothing I ate made sense. Corn tasted like meat, meat tasted like yogurt?! For the culture.Caroline: Who's got room for some chitlins cake?
- Everyone Is a Suspect: When James goes missing and a bloody handprint is found on the wall, Ray takes it on himself to play detective and accuses everyone of being a suspect... because everybody hated James.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Caroline has never said the N word. Even when pushed, the most she can muster is "nincompoops," to the disappointment of the rest of her housemates.
- It's All About Me: Monique's birthday party theme is herself... she has photos of her face everywhere, including on the cups, T-shirts, and even masks of her face!
- Magical Negro: One sketch provides a deconstructed parody of this trope, where in which a social worker provides counseling to Magical Negros from a variety of major Hollywood movies (including Hoke Colburn, Oda Mae Brown, John Coffey, and more) with the aim of teaching them to value themselves and retraining them not to compulsively help white people.
- Meaningful Echo: At first, Grandpa Gingerbread's mutterings is dismissed as the ramblings of a senior with PTSD. However, after the children devastate their house, it makes much more sense.Grandpa: Crumble... snap... driiiiiip!!!
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: The entirety of the sketch "A Good Old Fashioned Shade Off," which culminates in Lady Aaliyah shooting Lady Fiona.Lady Fiona (as she lays dying): I'm shivering! It's so cold in the shade!
- Reality TV Show Mansion: Subverted. While ostensibly a nice living quarter, the Astronomy Clubhouse doesn't have enough bedrooms for the eight members. Additionally, the only reason why they are allowed to live there was because this house was a murder house and the producers bought it cheap.
- Rule of Drama: Monique flat-out admits that she prefers the reality TV drama possibilities rather than the actual sketches themselves when agreeing to do the show. She will also intentionally set up house dramatics to get a kick.Monique: Honestly, if I were going to kill someone in the house, it would be on camera. Imagine the ratings!
- Small Name, Big Ego: Jonathan claims to be the leader of their troupe. Everyone else dismisses his delusions.
- The Teaser: Each episode opens with a short sketch, ranging from a black woman's skin finally cracking to a casting call for a movie role that still limits black men to the same offensive and outdated stereotypes despite there being at least one black filmmaker.
- The Whitest Black Guy: The non-sketch portions of episode 3 ("For the Culture") revolve around each individual Astronomy Club member asserting their blackness. Caroline takes this to the extreme, cooking soul food that makes absolutely no sense (A "JB Smoothie" made of ham hock and black eyed peas) and wearing her hair in an afro, but each member is self-conscious about their blackness to a degree.
