A clip of a TV interview with Belgian environmental geopolitical scientist François Gemenne has gone viral – but not because of his expertise.
The climate specialist was speaking via Zoom to the French TV channel LCI when, in the middle of the interview, he dropped his phone, revealing his full outfit, or rather lack thereof.
Despite fervent efforts by the Belgian to quickly grab the camera-phone and cover it, the eye-popping footage had already been recorded.
The video revealed that, while the climate expert was wearing a neatly buttoned-up shirt for his TV appearance, out of shot he donned nothing but his underwear, with the embarrassing moment there for all to see.
The LCI journalist, noting his interviewee’s somewhat sparse lower clothing, jokily warned Gemenne not to break his camera and, managing to suppress an obvious desire to laugh, kept his cool and professionally continued. Others in the studio obviously had a harder time containing their mirth.
A clip of the slip-up later appeared on X, formerly Twitter, and quickly garnered millions of views.
Notre champion du jour pic.twitter.com/7LSzn5XStD
— Fédé 🇫🇷 de la Lose (@FFLose) September 7, 2023
Gemenne, a co-author of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report on climate change, saw the humorous side and light-heartedly stated on the social media network: “Moral of the story, always wear trousers – also during a video conference interview.”
He also said he was glad he had been wearing “elegant” underwear rather than something less attractive.
The Belgian also updated his Twitter bio, stating: “I occasionally give interviews in underpants.”
An X-user remarked it was a fitting outfit given the warm temperatures and another pointed out it could have been worse.
It is not the first time Gemenne has gained attention during a Zoom-interview, as he once spoke to France 24 with his young baby on his arm.
