National Post (National Edition)
MP's accidental nudity ranks among world's notable gaffes
Unfortunately, it looks like one of the top international news stories to emerge from Canada in 2021 is Liberal MP William Amos accidentally appearing nude during a virtual House of Commons sitting of Parliament. The BBC, Washington Post and CNN have picked up the story, as well as outlets across Europe, Asia and the English-speaking world. The Liberal party, for its part, has promised to track down the MP who screen-grabbed Amos, who had returned from a jog, was changing his clothes, and forgot the Zoom camera was on, calling it a “potentially criminal act.”
In Amos' mistake, however, tens of thousands of work-from-homers around the world have glimpsed their worst nightmare: A momentary lapse in protocol that resulted in an accidental full monty in front of colleagues. But how does it rank in the global hall-of-fame of Zoom gaffes committed under COVID-19? You decide.
A Mexican senator appeared topless in an official meeting
The saga of Mexican senator Martha Lucia Micher is remarkably similar to that experienced by Amos. The 66-year-old politician was in a Zoom meeting with fellow representative of the leftwing National Regeneration Movement when she decided to change, unaware that her camera was still on. The resulting exposure of her naked torso was an “unfortunate incident,” according to Micher, but she also came out against a subsequent round of online mockery, saying that her breasts had “breastfed four children, three of whom are today professional and responsible men, and I feel proud of my body for having nourished them.”
Spanish news anchor accidentally reveals new girlfriend
While Spanish news anchor Alfonso Merlos delivered a live hit from his living room, a woman clad only in a bra briefly appeared in the background. A standard Zoom gaffe, but eagle-eyed viewers soon noted it was not Merlos' well-known girlfriend, former reality TV star Marta López. However, it may not have technically been evidence of infidelity, as López and Merlos were experiencing another grim reality of COVID-19: a temporary separation.
Multiple government meetings have been derailed by couples having sex
In August, a meeting of municipal councillors in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil, was able to shoulder ahead despite the fact that one of the meeting participants had stepped away to have sex in the background while his computer's camera remained on. That same month, a village council meeting in the Philippines similarly saw a participant step away from a conference call, drop his pants and have sex with his secretary on a desk. In the Filipino case, authorities were much less forgiving, with one official telling reporters “we will do everything to punish him.”
Businessman flashes the Brazilian president
In May, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro was in a virtual meeting of Sao Paulo businessmen when one of them got up and began to disrobe, apparently in preparation for a shower. After Bolsonaro queried the meeting coordinator about the nude participant, the president said “unfortunately we saw. It was a shaky picture but we saw.” “I'm not a cat”
One of the more wholesome Zoom gaffes seen under COVID-19, Texas District Attorney Rod Ponton called into a civil forfeiture hearing while his Zoom settings were accidentally toggled to have him appear as an adorable kitten. “I'm not a cat,” soon became the declaration heard roundthe-world when a mortified Ponton declared to assembled counsel that he was prepared to go forward with the application despite his unintended transformation.
Argentine lawmaker caught inspecting girlfriend's new breasts
While most of the incidents in this list happened in semi-private sessions, Argentine lawmaker Juan Emilio Ameri was in an official sitting of the country's lower house of congress when he called his girlfriend over to inspect her new breast implants. “Let's see how the implants look, I told her. Look, this one's down more, this one's down less, let's look at the scars, and she was beside me and I kissed her,” is how he explained the incident, which was being unwittingly broadcast in Argentina. Toobin's toobin
Easily the leading Google search result for “Zoom gaffe” belongs to Jeffrey Toobin, the former legal analyst for CNN. In October, while conducting an election simulation Toobin began manually stimulating his penis, apparently unaware that his camera and microphone were both broadcasting the event to a who's who of the U.S. commentariat. Toobin lost his CNN position and saw his career go into indefinite hibernation, but unlike all the other entries in this list, Toobin was never recorded and his act of auto-erotic exposure is known only through witness accounts. This may not have saved his career, but it has at least spared him a slightly more visceral humiliation.