The Daily Tism launches autism-themed sketch show
Satirical news website The Daily Tism has launched an online sketch show. Dubbed "news by and for autistic people", the first episode is available to watch now.
The online publication - which was founded in April by Sara Gibbs and Elsa Williams - has teamed up with production company Turtle Canyon Comedy to create the nine minute video.
The show, released today, features Abigail Weinstock as the news anchor and stars autistic writers and performers Elsa Williams, Stuart Laws and Grace Jarvis, amongst others. Adapting the site with a news-desk format and a festive theme, the episode is described as "the perfect excuse for ignoring neurotypical relatives this Christmas".
Sara Gibbs comments: "The website has grown so fast in the seven months since we launched that we've barely been able to keep up. It was clear there was a huge appetite for more autistic-led comedy, so this is our labour of love for all our fellow evil autistics out there. We hope they find it funny and relatable - and most importantly that they watch it at least 500 times each to self-regulate.
"I grew up watching classic sketch and news parody shows like The Fast Show, Goodness Gracious Me, Brass Eye and Smack The Pony, so I really wanted to carry those conventions and traditions over to our unconventional way of seeing the world.
"Teaming up with Turtle Canyon Comedy was the perfect fit - not just because we have no idea how to film anything, but that Stuart Laws is bloody hilarious (and we needed one token man - for representation)."
Elsa Williams adds: "To us, a lot of life often feels absurd - so making a sketch show from that perspective just made sense, even though not much else does. And it feels good to bring something new. We're not an autistic choir moving everybody to tears, so we'll go for tears of laughter."
Stuart Laws, who also directed the episode, jokes: "I had read and shared brilliant articles by The Daily Tism, so when they came knocking and asked if I'd be up for working on this show, I looked them just above the eyes so that no one got too uncomfortable and said 'absolutely, as long as I can play six characters and they all be heroic with strong jawlines'. I settled for playing six characters."
The episode can be watched here:
The team plans to crowdfund for a second episode, with the hopes of quarterly episodes being released in the future.