TGIF FEATURE:BBC interview with Korea expert goes viral

FACEBOOK/JUNG-A KIM

Jung-a Kim and Robert E. Kelly with their daughter Marion during a more controlled photograph.

IT WAS supposed to be a very serious interview about a very serious topic, but instead, it unintentionally became one of the funniest videos of this young year.

This morning (March 10) Robert E. Kelly, a political-science professor at Pusan National University in South Korea, was at his home in South Korea being interviewed by the BBC via Skype as an expert to discuss the South Korea impeachment scandal.

As the interview began, his daughter Marion opened the door behind him and merrily strode in. She was followed by her younger brother James, who glided in in his walker. Then Kelly's wife, Jung-a Kim, dashed into the room, desperately trying to hustle the children out of the room.

As his wife awkwardly closed the door, the older child can be hear shouting, "Oww, may!"

While all this was going on, Kelly kept his professional composure and maintained eye contact with the computer screen with a slight smile appearing as he apologized for the interruption.

After the interview, the professor was asked permission to use the video on social media. “Is this kinda thing that goes ‘viral’ and gets weird?” responded Kelly.

It quickly went viral. By day's end, the video had over 4 million views on YouTube alone. Viewers called it “magical TV,” “one of the funniest things I've seen” and “TV gold.”

The minute-long video also raised other discussion points, from the perils of live TV, working from home, parenting and the issue of casual racism when so many reports assumed that Kelly's Korean wife was assumed to be the nanny.