It was around 2017 when some images featuring political science professor Robert Kelly went viral on social media. The political expert connected live from his house to the BBC to talk about the South Korean Constitutional Court’s decision to dismiss President Park Geun-hye. However, what had to be a most formal and serious moment ended up becoming a real meme, since in the middle of the interview his children burst onto the scene.
What ended up happening on that occasion ended up turning him and his family into stars of global fame, since it was seen more than 10 million times on Facebook alone. At that time, Kelly, an American national, stared into the camera while discussing the scandal in the Asian country. She did not realize at that moment that her little daughter opened the bedroom door and entered the live show.
In the background, the network’s viewers saw the little girl approaching him and waving her arms happily. Later, a baby appeared walking in a walker and finally the mother of the little ones, who came to the rescue knowing that the three were sneaking into the live broadcast of one of the most followed networks in the world. It was then that the woman hurriedly closed the door and took the little ones away. “My apologies… I’m sorry… Excuse me… I’m sorry,” Kelly repeated incessantly, with a shy smile.
Shortly after the live show, BBC journalist David Waddell wrote to him in a tweet. “What a good handling of the interruption, Professor! Do you have any objection to me sharing the clip of that moment on BBC News?” He said then. “What would that mean please? Rebroadcast it on the BBC or just here on Twitter? Is this something that goes ‘viral’ and weird?” he replied. And so, without knowing it, his family was going to be part of one of the most viewed videos on social networks.
This Sunday, seven years after that moment, Kelly reappeared on her social networks to remember the moment that went so viral. “BBC daddy content,” she began by saying. “Today is the seventh anniversary of the BBC Dad’s mistake. So here it is again, with some recent family photographs in the thread below,” he expressed, showing in the X thread (formerly Twitter), current images of his children, who have grown significantly since then.
In the snapshots, you can see little Marion and James at different times, such as last Christmas or the little girl’s birthday party, held this weekend. In the images, of course, Robert also appears, and also who on the day of the live connection with the BBC was his savior, his wife, called Jung A-Kim. Without a doubt, the family will never forget that moment. Nor his followers, who have remembered in the comments how epic that moment on television was.
