Family in viral video looks back on the BBC interview that made them famous

ASAM NEWS

BY NOW, you’ve likely seen the viral video of the Asian kids who interrupted their dad during a live BBC television interview and the mom who desperately tried to take them away.

BBC returned to the family of Prof. Robert Kelly to get their reaction to the incident and the instant fame they garnered because of the video.

The original video has been seen by millions on social media, and now for the first time, the family is making its first comments about the incident.

RELATED: BBC video goes viral

“I think the reason why this went viral is because my real life sort of punched through the fake cover I had created for television,” said Professor Robert Kelly.

“He usually locks the door,” his wife Kim said. “Most of the time they come back to me after they find the locked door. But they didn’t. And then I saw the door was open. It was chaos for me.”

You know you've hit the big time when people do parodies of the incident. The incident is so widely known that producers Michael Tow and Teja Arboleda have produced their own parody of the incident.

Thank you Mr and Mrs. Kelly (and your children) for providing us a lovely respite from the hard news of the day. (Views From the Edge contributed to this report)

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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.