Kids Interrupt BBC Interview

About

Kids Interrupt BBC Interview refers to a video of an interview of Professor Robert E. Kelly discussing the 2016 South Korean Political Scandal / Choi Soon-Sil Gate on Skype with BBC when his children walk into the room where he is conducting the interview. The video went viral because of the cute children and the way his wife bursts into the room to try to remove the children.

Origin

On March 10th, 2017, political scientist and professor Robert E. Kelly appeared on an interview segment with BBC News^[1] to discuss South Korean politics remotely from his home in Busan, Korea, which took an unexpected turn from a political analysis of serious nature to a funny on-air interruption when two of his children cheerfully marched into the view of the webcam.

Spread

The video was an instant hit on Twitter as people shared GIFs of Kelly's daughter walking in and other various clips of the event.

Viewership

In less than 72 hours, the video garnered millions of views in aggregate, with BBC's interview clip on its YouTube channel alone racking up over 15 million views. On Twitter, the BBC Newsbeat video^[9] gained over 74,000 retweets, and the BBC World video gained over 16,000.^[10] On BBC's Facebook Newsbeat channel,^[5] the video gained over 86 million views. The spread of the video to Facebook and Twitter^[4] has given it over 100 million views in aggregate.

Racial Stereotype Debate

As the video made the rounds across the social media in the United States and Europe, some viewers commented on the comical situation under the presumption that the woman who appears later on in the video is a nanny working for the professor, which in turn prompted an influx of corrections and fact-checking messages on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere online. On the next day, BBC News^[2] reported on the social media debate in a follow-up article titled "Why did people assume an Asian woman in BBC viral video was the nanny?"

Romper^[6] posted an article claiming that assuming Kelly's wife was the nanny perpetrated a "dangerous stereotype." The Guardian^[3] also investigated the reaction to the assumption on social media. On March 11th, Twitter user @leyawn^[7] published an Expanding Brain meme mocking the discourse surrounding the controversy that gained over 2,200 likes.

Family Response

On March 14th, Kelly's family responded to their newfound viral fame by appearing on camera in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.^[8] They revealed the backstory behind the event: Kelly's wife, Kim Jung-A, was filming the live television broadcast of her interview with her phone when she noticed her children in the frame, prompting her to panic and get the kids out of the room. They also revealed that Kelly did not get up to move his kids because beneath his jacket and tie, he was wearing jeans. Finally, Kelly and Jung-A revealed they did not scold their kids and that they wanted to establish that it's okay to “laugh at the video as unvarnished but normal family life.”

Cartoon Series

On April 17th, an animated series inspired by Marion and James premiered on YouTube. Produced by Hans House Productions and created by Lauren Martin and Jerry Mandy, the series, entitled The Adventures of Mina & Jack, follows two toddlers who help their father with his important job.

That day, Robert Kelly tweeted about the cartoon, sharing the video and writing, "The Adventures of Mina and Jack – Prologue https://youtu.be/PCvfJOZgvoE via @YouTube Funny take-off of our viral video. I look suitably dorky."

Broadcast Awards

On February 7th, 2018, Professor Kelly was awards the Best TV Moment of the Year at the Broadcast Awards. That night, the Twitter^[11] account @Timeline_TV tweeted the on-stage acceptance of the award with the caption "Congratulations to BBC World News – Professor Robert Kelly’s live interview is gatecrashed by his kids – for winning Timeline TV Moment of the Year award @BroadcastAwards!" The post (shown below) received more than 300 retweets and 1,000 likes in 24 hours.

The following day, Twitter^[12] published a Moments page commemorating the event.

Search Interest

External References