Yahoo News People Are Sharing A Hilarious Clip Of A US Broadcaster Going Full Alan Partridge
An old video of an incredibly awkward interview revealing an American TV news host’s confusion over Ireland using the Euro instead of the Pound is being shared widely online.
In the clip (scroll to 7.10 in the YouTube clip above), Martin Shanahan, the CEO of Ireland’s inward investment agency the Industrial Development Agency (IDA), is quizzed about the country’s growing economy on Squawk Box, a programme on the CNBC news channel.
The conversation shifts to the impact of the weakening Euro – a change of gear that seems to befuddle co-presenter, Joe Kernen.
Kernen can’t quite wrap his head around the fact that a) Ireland is a country independent of the United Kingdom b) Ireland was one of the first countries to adopt the Euro in 1999 and c) Northern Ireland’s currency is Sterling. There’s probably a d) and an e) in there too.
As the interview with the Irish business leader from 2014 resurfaced this week, many were drawing parallels to comedy character Alan Partridge’s remorselessly ignorant comments about Ireland when receiving a pitch from TV producers.
Americans are at it again with the accidental Partridge pic.twitter.com/WtwnR7jCKK
— 🐿Septic Peg (@PegSeptic) September 27, 2021
Kernen: You have pounds anyway don’t you still?
Shanahan: We have Euros.
Kernen: You have Euros in Ireland?
Shanahan: Yes. We have Euros, which is ...
Kernen: Why do you have Euros in Ireland?
Shanahan: A strong recovery...
Kernen: Why do use Euros in Ireland?
Shanhan: Why wouldn’t we have Euros in Ireland?
Kernen: Huh. I’d use the pound.
Shanahan: We use Euro.
Kernen: What about Scotland? I was using Scottish eh...
Shanahan: Scottish pounds.
Kernen: Scottish pounds.
Shanahan: They use Sterling.
Kernen: They use Sterling?
Shanahan: They use Sterling. But we use Euro.
Kernen: What? Why would you do that?
Shanahan: Why wouldn’t we do that.
Kernen: Why didn’t Scotland? No wonder they wanted to break away.
Shanahan: They are part of the UK, we are not.
Kernen: Aren’t you right next to er ...?
Shanahan: We are very close but entirely separate.
Kernen: It is sort of the same, same island isn’t it?
Shanhan: And in the north of Ireland they have Sterling.
Kernen: They do?
Pretty soon blue tick Twitter users were also keen to share.
broadcasting at its worst and also best
pic.twitter.com/W52rR8ejNo— Jim Pickard (@PickardJE) September 29, 2021
I can’t stop watching this interview on repeat, absolutely incredible Alan Partridge level interview skills pic.twitter.com/GZVVuDIFdy
— Charlie Haynes (@charliehtweets) September 29, 2021
This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.
