Right before a special BBC America World Debate on the future of news during the TED 2008 conference in Monterey, California, the crew had a technical difficulty.
Suddenly, a heckler spoke up from the back of the room:
The crowd hushed down as soon as it realized who was doing the heckling: attendee Robin Williams. It being Robin Williams, it didn't take much cheering from the crowd to get him on stage. He then spent the next 15 minutes doing improv standup comedy to an eager crowd and an embarrassed BBC America staff.
"A new internet service in Israel is called Netanyahu." "Sergey Brin: started in garage and now he owns everything." "So, how much money have we raised so far?" And on and on, in the way only Robin Williams can do.
BBC finally got its technological ducks in a row (Williams: "This is supposed to be a presentation on new media?"), and the panel went on. (Source: Megan Barnett at Spottings Blog)
You can watch Robin Williams' impromptu hijacking of the debate on BBC's website: Link - Thanks moronic50!
Most people in Britain are extremely proud of it, especially when compared to something like say, off the top of my head, Fox news.
Deluded.