Comedy. Drama. Suspense. Why is there corn in the bathtub? Who is leaving audacious drawings on the whiteboard? From the sly jokes and the perfectly satirical delivery to the ironic shots of the UT campus dispersed here and there, the screening of TSTV’s “Longhorn Tales” on Friday made for a thoroughly enjoyable 30 minutes.
Texas Student Television’s (TSTV) brand new sketch-based comedy show “Longhorn Tales” takes crazy, weird, funny and true student stories and brings them to the screen. Students share their personal stories through a submission form or social media which then gets adapted for the show. The form opened in February, and the first episode will air on May 3 at 6 p.m. on both TSTV and YouTube.
Chandler Higgins, radio-television-film (RTF) sophomore and “Longhorn Tales” producer, said she has been pleasantly surprised with how much interest the show has gotten so far.
“We had a lot of people message us and tell us (their) story,” Higgins said. “They’ll say, ‘I had a weird thing happen to me,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.’”
Higgins said the show’s mockumentary style aims to poke fun at and highlight the goofy nature of life.
“I want (viewers) to have a good time because it is an anthology,” Higgins said. “It is episodic, so you can miss one episode and still understand.”
Aparna Patait, an RTF freshman who works on pre-production and post-production for the show, said the authenticity and rawness of student’s true tales stood out.
“The stories themselves are so real,” Patait said. “They’re so real that they become humorous. Then you don’t even need something dramatic to happen.”
While still scripted like most TSTV shows, “Longhorn Tales” uniquely incorporates real UT student stories into film.
“I knew that I wanted to start a show at TSTV as soon as I heard about (the station) my freshman year,” Higgins said. “If we had a show that was just about students being students, I haven’t seen that.”
Higgins said she always enjoyed creating films, even before choosing RTF as a major.
“I was always filming and making skits even when I was younger,” Higgins said. “I did not know how to work Youtube. I would still like to make little puppet shows with my stuff, animals and film them.”
Michael Chavis, art and technology entertainment freshman, said the TSTV team is extremely passionate about their idea.
“We’re all motivated (to) succeed,” Chavis said. “I find people’s stories very interesting as a freshman coming in and hearing experiences that people have here.”
Patait said focusing on humor and the silliness in the mundane can often point out issues in the world; a little bit of satire goes a long way.
“There is so much scope within comedy itself to depict larger problems,” Patait said. “A large part of solving problems is to acknowledge that they exist, and what better way to acknowledge that they exist and through comedy?”
