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...

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.

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

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...

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

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.

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".

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.

For those without a NYT subscription:

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

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

A book was released…

Did he eventually get the job he was initially applying?

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

Gift nyt link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/business/media/bbc-guy-go...

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