Working from home definitely has its advantages, but it does sometimes have its drawbacks, as Professor Robert E. Kelly, who works for the Pusan National University in South Korea recently found out. A professor in political science, Kelly was contacted by the BBC on Skype to discuss the recent impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in South Korea and had just started speaking. Suddenly all hell lets loose, as first one child, then another child, enters the room, totally disrupting the serious interview. It continues with a woman, entering the room to try and get the children out.
Kids crash the BBC interview
In the video, Kelly appears to be sitting in his home office when the door suddenly opens and a small child toddles in. James Menendez, a presenter with BBC World, has just asked Kelly what the situation means for the wider region, and as Menendez spots the child entering the room, he says to Kelly that he thought one of his children had just walked in, with a definite smile in his voice.
Kelly continues talking, all the while pushing the child away from his desk. Shortly after that, a smaller child, in a rather squeaky walker, appears in the same room. This is followed by a woman – possibly the children’s mother or nanny – who skids around the corner into the office, obviously frantic to get the wayward kids out of the room.
Panicking, she accidentally knocks some books off a table in the room before falling onto her knees. She finally herds the kids out of the room and grabs the door handle and closes the door.
While the interruption was all over in around 40 seconds, the video footage has gone viral. Kelly handled the whole situation with aplomb, going from what looked like mild annoyance to attempting to stifle a smile, and back again, all the while being interviewed about President Park being removed from office in South Korea.
Professor Kelly apologizes for the mayhem in his office
All the way through the short video, Kelly manages to keep his composure and actually answer the BBC interviewer’s questions, while offering his apologies for the chaos caused by the family. Even after the door is closed, the noises continue in the background, with the children crying and screaming.
The media, both social and otherwise, soon picked up on the story and it caught the imagination of many, with some asking him on Twitter if they could use the footage. Kelly asks if things were going to get viral and weird, and of course they did.
@David_Waddell What would that mean, please? Re-broadcasting it on BBC TV, or just here on Twitter? Is this kinda thing that goes 'viral' and gets weird?
— Robert E Kelly (@Robert_E_Kelly) March 10, 2017
As mentioned by Buzzfeed, Kelly has been a contributing guest on the BBC for some time and his knowledge of politics on the Korean Peninsula was the reason for the current interview. According to the New York Times, many of these media interviews can be viewed on Kelly’s YouTube page and they all appear to happen in the very same room, but normally without the children. Watch the fun in the short video included below.
