What does an adorable girl have to do to get a little screen time these days? Crash your dad's BBC interview and unleash a little domestic mayhem, thus becoming an internet darling so you can get your message out to your adoring fans? Yep. The now-famous little girl who crashed her dad's BBC interview on live television is finally getting her own moment in the spotlight, outside of her unexpected cameo. Because she's earned it, and her dad might be a well-respected professor in his field but let's face it, we're all in it for her. Also her freewheeling baby brother.
Professor Robert Kelly of South Korea's Pusan National University is considered an expert in East Asian affairs and is often called on to offer his expert opinions by media outlets. Kelly was at his home in Busan, South Korea, last Friday, preparing for a live interview with the BBC. He and his wife had ordered pizza and she was apparently watching from the other room with their two kids. Unfortunately for Kelly (but so, so fortunately for the rest of us) his 5-year-old daughter Marion saw her dad on television, realized he was in his office, and went to see what he was up to. Kelly told The Wall Street Journal that little Marion was in a "hippity hoppity" mood from a school party earlier in the day, which could account for her level 10 swagger as she entered the room.
As Kelly tried valiantly to redirect and keep a straight face, his 8-month-old son, James, came rolling in the room with his walker as well, followed closely by Kelly's wife Kim Jung-A (whose slide across the floor to save the day is equal to Tom Cruise in Risky Business, by the way), with the BBC filming live the entire time. To date, the video has been viewed over 85 million times.
Social media users have loved giving their two cents on the scene, whether people were erroneously calling Kelly's wife "the nanny," (she is Korean, Kelly is white), or accusing him of strong-arming his daughter. Oh, also, many people assumed he wan't wearing pants, in case you're interested in some more fringe theories. The couple tried to avoid the attention over the weekend, staying away from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, but finally caved for a second interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday to answer a few questions — and this time around, Marion didn't have to sneak in for her moment in the sun. She was front and center. (Also Kelly wanted to clear up the whole pants issue; He was wearing some. So there.)
Wife Kim explained that, in most cases, when the kids try to enter dad's office during work hours or an interview, they find the door locked, turn around and head back to hang with mom, where they can watch their father on TV like everyone else — except this time, all did not go according to plan. "I saw the door open," Kim recalled. "It was chaos for me."
"I made this minor mistake that turned my family into YouTube stars," Kelly added. "It's pretty ridiculous."
That's nice and all, but what did Marion have to say after becoming the most-watched little girl on the internet over the weekend? Here's the full, detailed exchange from the family's interview with The Journal:
Kelly: What did you do for your birthday at school?
Marion: BLAHHH!
Kelly (wearily): I don't know, man....
Perhaps Marion is all about the element of surprise. Perhaps she got stage fright. Or perhaps she is a regular kid in a regular family acting like a goofball because that's what little kids so. And perhaps that's why we all loved watching her. Because this particular "comedy of errors," as Kelly described his interview, is basically all of us.
