It’s now been exactly nine years since a four-year old girl sparked one of the most hilarious TV moments of all time.
In March 2017, political analyst Robert E Kelly was undertaking a live cross from his home office, years before Zoom calls and online interviews became commonplace.
At the time he was speaking to broadcaster James Menendez on the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, the President of South Korea, for the BBC World News.
But as he was detailing the major moment in world affairs, his daughter Marion decided she didn’t want to miss out.
As Robert – who was dressed in a suit and tie for the professional occasion – updated BBC viewers on the event, the door to his office flung open and a young girl in a bright yellow jumper appeared.
Initially looking uncertain about what she was watching her dad do, Marion wasn’t worried for long and started bounding her way up to him before appearing next to him and resting her hands on his desk.
As James asked Robert what the impeachment meant for the wider region, he paused their conversation to let the analyst know that one of his children ‘had just walked in’.
Doing his best to avoid the distraction, Robert tried to gently push his daughter away while the journalist asked him: ‘Do you think relations with the North may change?’
But at that point things took another turn when a baby boy in a walker slid into the room too, while Marion comfortably sat herself down to watch her dad work.
However a woman’s voice could then be heard panicking in the background and flying into the door, slipping as she tried to get the children out.
Somehow managing to maintain a cool face, Robert told the BBC presenter ‘pardon me’, as chaos unfolded behind him.
His wife Jung-a Kim could then be seen grabbing each child with one hand and dragging them out of the room, with Robert then cracking a smile and offering his apologies to the journalist interviewing him.
Pausing and trying his best not to laugh, he waited for his family to exit the room and said ‘sorry’ before returning to their conversation about North Korea as his wife crawled back into the shot, before being seen closing the door as she backed out.
The clip quickly went viral, with the video amassing over six million views on YouTube within a day and becoming the No. 1 trending video on the platform in the UK.
It was also later named No. 10 on YouTube’s list of the top 10 trending videos of 2017.
Today Robert re-shared footage of the moment on X to mark it being nine years since his family became famous around the world.
As he explained: ‘Marion is now 13; James is now 9.’ He then shared a series of family snaps, including a selfie with his daughter, a photo posing with his son, one of his wife and Marion, plus a snap of them when the children were young.
‘Marion is almost as tall as her mother now, and that last pic is from 9 years ago, around the time of the BBC video,’ he explained.
‘Many people still tell us how much they enjoyed the video. How nice. We continue to be grateful for your kind words about our family. Best, Bob K.’
Reflecting on the delight the clip has brought over the years, many people commented on Robert’s post.
‘One of the greatest moments in television. You have a beautiful family,’ Joel commented.
‘Both the kids are stars, but award for best supporting role to your unsung wife: what a brilliant evac operation,’ Ruiser shared.
‘One of the best videos EVER. Every parent afterwards working from home felt this moment!’ Jess declared.
‘Still the funniest and most relatable family moment ever captured on camera!’ Annie said.
Many others said they were convinced the video had happened during lockdown and were shocked it had been nearly a decade ago. Others said every parent working from home could relate, while another said she hoped Marion ‘still walks into rooms with that exact same energy’.
As the tenth anniversary of the clip approaches, many also asked Robert and his family to recreate the moment next year too.
Robert, now 53, is an associate professor of international relations in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan National University in Busan, South Korea.
A few days after the famous live TV moment, he returned to BBC with his family to be interviewed about the worldwide response. Later that year he also said that ‘for two weeks we were the most famous family on earth’ but he thought it could be ‘the end of my career as a talking head’.
Thankfully that was not the case, and he continues to contribute his expert opinions in news coverage.
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