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

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• 2 months ago

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• 2 months ago

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

Markoff• 2 months ago

here is the sketch from IT Crowd if anyone's wondering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2TITZkrcE

punkbit• 2 months ago

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

A book was released…

zoenolan• 2 months ago

Guy and Elliott Gotkine interviewed about the book

https://youtu.be/VO0kaSHAOSE

anonymars• 2 months ago

Providing the last name of Elliott Gotkine but not Guy--thus continuing the ambiguity of which Guy is being interviewed--is a nice touch

rchaud• 2 months ago

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.

mkoryak• 2 months ago

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

toast0• 2 months ago

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• 2 months ago

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?

manyturtles• 2 months ago

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• 2 months ago

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

Findecanor• 2 months ago

He passed from metastasised colon cancer, apparently. That is the most common cancer and too often gets undiscovered before it has spread to other organs. I recommend everyone from age 45 to get a colonoscopy every ten years to nip any polyps before they develop.

mmsimanga• 2 months ago

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

londons_explore• 2 months ago

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• 2 months ago

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

nxobject2• 2 months ago

Honestly? A political interview show with gags like that would lighten things up. A few "crime is everywhere!!!" politicians would do very well with a whoopie cushion.

hermitcrab• 2 months ago

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

opium_tea• 2 months ago

The caption declaring him chairperson is absolutely perfect.

dagi3d• 2 months ago

Did he eventually get the job he was initially applying?

decimalenough• 2 months ago

According to the article, no.

AlecSchueler• 2 months ago

No, Guy Kewney got it.

PUSH_AX• 2 months ago

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

renticulous• 2 months ago

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• 2 months ago

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.

meken• 2 months ago

Love the story and the article. The only nit I have with it:

“His answers are… understandable, and maybe in some ways more digestible than we would get from an expert,” he said.

This does not reflect his actual responses? The interviewer keys off his most emphatic sounding words to keep the conversation flowing, but his answers are generally inscrutable.

He did a great job given the cards he was dealt though.

haritha-j2• 2 months ago

Thery claim this is a masterclass in how to keep your cool under pressure, but that really doesn't appear to be the case? Surely, if you realise you're not the person that's supposed to be interviewed, the correct thing to do would be to make the presenter aware of this rather than mislead the audience? not saying this is not a good response or that I would've done better, but to herald this is as the correct course of action seems a bit far.

whycome• 2 months ago

So you would want to make the large organization that you’re hoping to work for look bad?

bstsb2• 2 months ago

i would agree if it weren’t for his presence on live TV! at that point it seems too awkward and late to mention something

adjejmxbdjdn• 2 months ago

The entire interview went by and no one realized anything was wrong.

I’m not sure how a disruption of a live interview would be any better, especially given that he only realized something had gone wrong when the presenter was introducing him on live TV.

haritha-j2• 2 months ago

The live interview was already disrupted when they started interviewing a random person as an expert. Everyone watching being misled, to me, is a bigger disruption to the interview than admitting something is wrong.

IMO the best thing to say is something along the lines of "I think there's been a bit of a mix-up, I'm not the person you think I am, but if you want my two cents anyway ... ".

Obviously in reality I would've fumbled worse than this guy did, its easy to think things through with the benefit of not having the pressure of being put on the spot on live TV.

sandworm101• 2 months ago

No. This is the masterclass in keeping your cool during a BBC interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4f9AYRCZY

The old people here might remember the term "to Kramer into a room", which definitely applies to this clip.

strix_varius• 2 months ago

Really? I'm pretty unimpressed. I hope I would do better and "roll with it" more if my kids did that to me. Maybe I overestimate myself.

nxobject2• 2 months ago

I do think about what I would have done – maybe I would quietly leaned into the ear of the presenter and mentioned something.

But, also, I wouldn't take any chances if I was trying to get hired there...

spenczar5• 2 months ago

A correction was made on May 6, 2026: An earlier version of this article misstated the country where Guy Goma grew up. He is from the Republic of Congo, not the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Right guy, wrong Congo! You can't even make this stuff up.

travelmalta• 2 months ago

He's had a book written on this now. That's great but I'd like a book about Guy Kewney instead. The guy was a genius. I remember reading his columns in the computer magazines, a real inspiration.

FarMcKon• 2 months ago

Archive.is has some kind of phone tracking CAPTCHA.

So now what, a phone is proof of humanity? How is that not defeated by botfarms in an hour, alongside tracking you, as well as a horrible UX?

I hate modern surveillance capitalism.

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

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