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Guy Goma's Accidental BBC Interview Lives on After 20 Years

128 points by nxobject ago | 29 comments
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/business/media/bbc-guy-go...

https://archive.is/xZgBI

toast0 |next [-]

I hadn't seen or heard of this one. It reminds me a bit of this classic c-span moment: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/16/371232190...

swores |root |parent [-]

Are you just sharing "this is something else on a TV program that amused me", or am I being dense in my failing to spot anything that's similar between the two situations?

ebbi |next |previous [-]

His facial expression when the presenter was introducing 'him' is absolute gold! When I first watched it, I actually thought it was a skit - it being BBC, the animated facial reactions, the presenter trying to navigate his (non)-answers.

zdw |next |previous [-]

This seems to have happened about a year before "The IT Crowd" episode "Smoke and Mirrors" aired.

In that episode Moss, one of the IT denizens, goes to a TV studio where he is mistakenly put on a news program and interviewed about a war.

I wonder if they're related...

bgc |root |parent [-]

That episode is indeed based on this event: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1111175/trivia/?ref_=tt_dyk_trv

mmsimanga |next |previous [-]

On South African national TV the interviewee's chair broke. Still cracks me up to this day. https://youtu.be/XnHIeXQCfog?si=u4kzKfPLKSNGbBf_

hermitcrab |root |parent |next [-]

That gave me a good laugh on a Monday morning. Thanks.

londons_explore |root |parent |next |previous [-]

There must have been some maintenance crew who had been asking for a bigger budget for months...

I wonder if they assisted the chairs downfall...

dude250711 |root |parent |previous [-]

Because of their composure, it almost looks like an intended format: you have 20 seconds to make your point before the chair collapses.

sxzygz |next |previous [-]

The interview itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Y2uQn_wvc

helsinkiandrew |root |parent [-]

You can see his terror on his face and the lip trembling at his sudden realization somethings gone wrong at 24 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Y2uQn_wvc&t=24s

rchaud |next |previous [-]

One of the first viral videos in the early years of Youtube. This was at a time when the Internet was just small enough that a single video could organically circulate around the whole world and be universally appreciated for its ridiculous yet endearing nature, by adults and kids alike.

aaron695 |root |parent [-]

[dead]

heldrida |next |previous [-]

Related HN posted earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48074260

A book was released…

zoenolan |root |parent |next [-]

Guy and Elliott Gotkine interviewed about the book

https://youtu.be/VO0kaSHAOSE

huflungdung |root |parent |previous [-]

[dead]

renticulous |next |previous [-]

Just goes onto show how fragile the trust network between humans is overall. Today, journalism is all about "trusted sources", "official sources", "my birdie told me".

GJim |root |parent [-]

Oh dear.

If you bothered to read the story behind this, you would know the chap had the same name as the 'real' person being interviewed who was waiting in a different reception area. Our man got called forward by mistake, he was a quiet chap who didn't want to rock the boat and so (very amusingly) got interviewed by an unknowing presenter.

To claim this is about fragile trust, rather than a silly mistake, is bollocks.

rmason |next |previous [-]

For those without a NYT subscription:

https://archive.is/xZgBI#selection-505.0-505.55

binaryturtle |root |parent |previous [-]

But this needs a Cloudflare subscription, or something? I can't open it either. :)

lamonade |root |parent [-]

try vpn. i think archive.is blocks at least Finland

manyturtles |next |previous [-]

I wish I could have seen Guy Kewney's face when he saw this. Sadly now passed, he had a charmingly irreverent sense of humor around Ziff-Davis UK back in the day.

fakedang |root |parent [-]

Well he didn't take it lightly and was very upset. They apparently did a pre-recorded version of his answers that the producers of that segment specifically told the night shift to air online, but the night shift didn't, which further exasperated him.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0kaSHAOSE

dagi3d |next |previous [-]

Did he eventually get the job he was initially applying?

AlecSchueler |root |parent |next [-]

No, Guy Kewney got it.

decimalenough |root |parent |previous [-]

According to the article, no.

PUSH_AX |next |previous [-]

They didn't give him the job in the end!

|next |previous [-]

ares623 |previous [-]

[flagged]

recursive |root |parent |next [-]

We're human supremacists. We would take risks to rescue stranded hikers, but not as much to rescue a stranded e bike. We eat animals but not humans. Humans are special to humans.

DoktorDelta |root |parent |previous [-]

He didn't boil a lake in the process