A Stellenbosch University (SU) student has gone viral recently with a series of TikTok videos garnering almost 30 million views in total.
Stellenbosch University second-year student, Timothy Morrell, got the idea to record singing flash-mob videos while studying at the Jan Mouton Learning Centre on the SU campus. PHOTO: Alison Hermanus
The videos, released by Timothy Morrell, are semi-spontaneous flash mobs performed in packed first-year lecture venues. The first video was posted on 20 February and had over 4 million likes at the time of publishing, while the second video, posted on 26 February, had over 600 000 likes at the time of publishing.
“Thinking about how many people are watching your videos and talking about you is overwhelming,” said Morrell, a second-year BSc Human Life Sciences student, who intends the videos to be a three-part series.
According to Morell, the idea for the videos was first brought up when he and his roommate — a second-year BAcc student, named Keegan Kisten — were sitting in the Jan Mouton Learning Centre at SU. “[…] Obviously it’s deadly quiet in the Jan Mouton. So, we were like: Imagine if we just start singing. Will people join?” said Morrell.
Timothy Morrell, second-year student at Stellenbosch University, during his first-ever news interview — with SMF News. PHOTO: Alison Hermanus
Once the idea was proposed, Kisten reached out to his previous financial accounting lecturer Prof. Sybil Smit for permission to film the video in the Van der Sterr building.
“I had a first meeting with Sybil Smit […] the week before the video was done. I met with Sybil Smit and Mr [Amber] De Laan, another lecturer,” said Kisten.
The idea was sent through to the department’s social media team, and once approved, the two students were given permission to film at the end of two first-year financial accounting lectures, according to Kisten. These slots were used to film the first and second parts of Morrell’s video series, at the end of De Laan’s lectures.
“[…] It sounded like it [would] be fun for the students, and we asked the faculty for permission […] we decided to help, since it only took a few minutes of our class, and Timothy followed the correct channels to gain permission,” said Smit.
Morrell and Kisten plan on filming the third part of the series in the following weeks, and are excited to share the intended finale.
De Laan was not available to comment at the time of publication.
Timothy Morrell and Keegan Kisten, Stellenbosch University students and the creators of the viral TikTok singing flash-mob video series. PHOTO: Alison Hermanus