Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show
“Adjusting the color on your screen.”
Overview
With unique individual perspectives that converge into a unified voice, sketch comedy group Astronomy Club delivers a smart and absurd brand of humor.
Seasons
- Status
- Canceled
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Episodes
- 6 episodes
- First aired
- Dec 6, 2019
Reviews
5 min readThe Sketch Show That Knew Exactly Who It Was
I remember the first time I saw the "D.A.M.N." sketch. It’s one of those moments that lands with the precision of a perfectly thrown dart—you don’t just laugh, you feel the click of recognition. The scene opens on a support group for "Magical Negroes," those familiar Black characters from film and TV who exist solely to guide white protagonists toward enlightenment.
Bagger Vance, Oda Mae Brown, and others sit in a circle, sharing their frustrations. "I’m tired of being the wise old sage who only speaks in riddles," one says. "I just want to be the guy who gets the girl and lives happily ever after."
The absurdity is sharp, but the underlying truth is sharper: Hollywood has spent decades reducing Black characters to tropes, and here was a sketch show daring to name them—and mock them—without apology.
Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show arrived in 2019 like a well-timed punchline to a joke no one else was telling. The series, which ran for six tight, whip-smart episodes on Netflix, was the brainchild of Astronomy Club, the first all-Black house team from New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In an era where sketch comedy often feels either too safe or too chaotic, Astronomy Club carved out a space that was both.
It was unapologetically Black, unapologetically weird, and—perhaps most impressively—unapologetically specific. This wasn’t a show trying to be the next SNL or Key & Peele; it was a show that knew exactly who it was and what it wanted to say.
The framework of Astronomy Club is deceptively simple: eight comedians live together in a shared house (the "Astronomy Clubhouse"), and each episode strings together a series of sketches that range from the surreal to the pointedly political. But the brilliance lies in how the show balances its two modes. On one hand, you have sketches like "Bodegas and Dragons," a meta-commentary on an all-white writing room creating a fantasy series about a "diverse" bodega.
The writers, all white, debate whether the Black character should be "street" or "urban," while the lone Black intern sits in silence, his face a mask of quiet exasperation. The sketch escalates into pure absurdity—imagine Dungeons & Dragons meets Mad Men—but the satire never loses its bite. It’s a perfect example of how Astronomy Club uses comedy to expose the laziness of tokenism, all while making you laugh so hard you forget you’re being schooled.
Audience Opinions
"A quick, smart-absurd sketch show from an eight-person troupe that lands best when skewering race and pop culture."
This is straight sketch comedy from Astronomy Club, an eight-member troupe noted as the first all-Black sketch and improv house team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. The hook is how different individual perspectives come together into one smart and absurd voice. People pass around bits like the Magical Negro Rehab opener that skewers Hollywood ideas about race, plus playful one-offs like Bodegas and Dragons and a shade-off battle. latestnetflix.com's view is that Episodes run about 20 minutes, so it watches fast and joke-dense.
- Sharp angle on Hollywood and race The Magical Negro Rehab premise turns tired movie tropes into a funny, pointed sketch.
- Strong ensemble voice Eight performers bring unique perspectives that converge into a smart and absurd style.
- Shareable sketch moments Bits like Bodegas and Dragons and a good old fashioned shade off work great as quick watches.
- Absurd humor is hit-or-miss The smart and absurd tone is fun if you like sketch absurdity, less so if you want grounded sitcom humor.
- Short, joke-dense format Twenty-minute sketch episodes move fast with no ongoing story to latch onto.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsNetflix’s "Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show" Broke Ground—But Why Did It Disappear After One Season?
Netflix’s Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show (2019) arrived with little fanfare but big ambitions. Created by and starring the eight-member comedy troupe Astronomy Club, the series was billed as the first all-Black sketch and improv house team at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre 
. latestnetflix.com's view is that that pedigree alone made it a standout in a crowded field of sketch comedy, but its abrupt cancellation after a single season left fans wondering: What went wrong?
A Historic Troupe, A Short-Lived Show
Astronomy Club’s roots in Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) gave the series instant credibility. The troupe, formed in 2014, quickly gained a reputation for sharp, culturally specific humor that skewered stereotypes while celebrating Black culture. Their Netflix debut promised to bring that energy to a wider audience, but the show’s reception was mixed. Critics praised its boldness—sketches like Magical Negro Rehab (a satirical take on the trope of Black characters existing only to help white protagonists) and Bodegas & Dragons (a fantasy parody set in a New York bodega) showcased the troupe’s knack for subverting expectations . Yet, with only a 6.8/10 rating on SensCritique (based on nine votes), it was clear the series didn’t resonate universally .
The show’s format—short, self-contained sketches—may have worked against it. Unlike Saturday Night Live or Key & Peele, which built loyal followings over years, Astronomy Club lacked the episodic hooks to keep viewers coming back. Netflix’s algorithm-driven model also favors bingeable content, and a sketch show’s fragmented nature might have struggled to compete with serialized dramas or reality TV.
Behind the Scenes: A Netflix Experiment That Fizzled
Netflix has a history of greenlighting niche comedy projects, only to cancel them after a single season if they don’t hit performance metrics. Astronomy Club appears to be another casualty of that strategy. The series’ trailer, released in November 2019, teased a mix of absurdist and socially conscious humor, but it’s unclear how much promotion Netflix actually gave it . Unlike I Think You Should Leave or Big Mouth, which became cult hits, Astronomy Club never seemed to break through the platform’s noise.
One unconfirmed rumor suggests the troupe’s improvisational style clashed with Netflix’s preference for polished, repeatable content. Sketch comedy thrives on spontaneity, but streaming platforms often demand consistency to justify licensing deals. If the show’s production process was too chaotic—or if Netflix executives pushed for safer material—it could explain why the series felt uneven.
Where Are They Now?
Since the show’s cancellation, Astronomy Club’s members have scattered across Hollywood. Some have landed recurring roles in TV comedies, while others have pivoted to writing or producing. The troupe still performs live, but their Netflix experiment remains a footnote in their careers. For fans, the question lingers: Could Astronomy Club have found its audience with more time—or was it doomed by the very platform that gave it a shot?
One thing is certain: The show’s legacy as a trailblazer for Black sketch comedy is secure. Whether Netflix missed an opportunity or simply misjudged the market, Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show remains a fascinating "what if" in the streaming era.
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.