Goma, Guy

Guy Goma was waiting for an interview in the administrative area of ​​the BBC Telecentre in West London . In May 2006, a vacancy of an IT database maintenance specialist opened here. At the same time, Guy Cuney , an expert in high technology, was expected to broadcast live in a special room on the subject of litigation between the companies now known as Apple and Apple Records .

Due to erroneous prompts, a television studio employee who was supposed to invite Guy Cuney from the waiting room began to search for an expert in the administrative area. When this employee asked the administrator about the whereabouts of Guy Cuney, she several times confidently pointed to Guy Goma.

It is worth noting that the television studio employee saw a photo of Guy Cuney, a short, fair-skinned man, but under time pressure, he decided to broadcast Goma, a tall black man, even remotely unlike Coney. The decision was influenced by the origin of Goma and intermediate English proficiency. A television studio employee asked Goma if he was Guy Cuney. Hearing his name, Goma, ready for an interview, answered: “Yes?” ^[1] .

Then Goma was taken to BBC News 24 studio, put makeup on his face, put him in front of the cameras and attached microphones. Guy found the interview very strange, but he did everything to pass it with all his equanimity, because his future work depended on this interview.

When news anchor Karen Bowerman introduced Goma to the audience as an expert in Internet technology, Guy Cuney, Goma was shocked and finally realized that a serious mistake had occurred. Despite this and his strong French accent, he continued to play as an expert and began to answer live questions about the Apple Corps case against the Apple Computer and the implications of this case for the music industry.

If you do not take into account the expression of sincere surprise on the face of Guy Gom, the interview looked very realistic, especially for those viewers who did not know Kuni in person. Kuni himself, seeing "himself" on TV, while still in the waiting room, was shocked by what was happening, although he did not even hear voices.

Interview Transcript

Karen Bowerman: So Guy Cuney, editor of the high-tech site Newswireless [The camera makes a run over Guy Goma, which becomes quite embarrassed and scared] . Hello, good morning to you.

Guy Goma: Uh, good morning.

KB: Was the court decision handed down today surprised you?

GG: I was surprised to see this ... this decision is for me because I did not expect it. When I arrived, they told me something completely different, and now I come here. “You will have an interview,” that’s all. In general, a big surprise.

KB: Yes, a big surprise.

GG: Exactly.

KB: Do you think that users will now, due to the appearance of expenses, download music from the Internet?

GG: Actually, wherever you look, everywhere people constantly download something from the Internet, from websites - everything that they want. But it seems to me that for development it is better ... uh ... to inform people about what they want, to give them an easier and faster way to find what they are looking for.

KB: It looks like the music industry is growing fast if people go to websites and download music.

GG: Exactly. You can go anywhere, in an Internet cafe, for example, and take ... Everything is very simple. There is an easier way for everyone to find something on the Internet.

KB: Guy Cuney. Thank you very much.

Twenty minutes after the television interview with Guy Goma, a ten-minute interview was conducted. He never got a job ^[2] .

After an error was found with the choice of experts, an interview with Guy Cuney was recorded on the BBC, but this record was not broadcast.

After showing the interview, a number of sources (including the BBC itself) stated that Guy Goma, who had moved to England from Congo in 2002, worked as a taxi driver. In fact, Goma never drove a taxi ^[3] .

Shortly after the appearance of Guy Goma in public, a discussion began of the rights of his stay in the country. A number of media outlets reported on Goma's expired tourist visa and the possibility of imminent deportation of a “teleexpert” ^[4] . Guy Goma is supported by members of the general public, including the notorious Nigerian publicist and British activist Kizzy Nkwocha in the United Kingdom . After that, it turned out that Goma had solved his visa problems three years earlier, which allowed him to live and work in London ^[5] .

A week after the error on the air, May 16, 2006, Guy Goma reappeared on the screen. This time the television interview was deliberately comic: the presenters represented Goma as a citizen of Venezuela , a lawyer and a doctor, and the conversation itself was dedicated to Hugo Chavez , the release of foreign prisoners in Britain and treatment abroad. On the same day, Guy Goma reappeared on BBC News 24 - already under his own name. The conversation was dedicated to the error that occurred a week earlier ^[6] .

Guy Goma then appears on the show “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross” (GMTV, ITV and BBC) ^[7] , then as a guest celebrity in Prince’s Trust interactive show, and later on television channels such as Channel Four (Channel 4 ), CNN , BBC World News and others.

Producer Alison Rosenzweig ( Talking to the Wind ) said she had begun the production process of the film, based on an unfortunate mistake with Guy Goma live. Commenting on her choice, Alison Rosenzweig stated:

“He’s funny, the same type of world famous person whose story would be an interesting source for the film” ^[8] .

Original text

He's a fun, kind of internationally famous person that I think is an interesting source for movie material.

On December 27, 2006, Guy Goma appeared on Channel Four in The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. After a commercial break, he replaced the presenter, comedian Jimmy Carr , welcoming the audience and players. Both subsequently agreed that Goma turned out to be a better leader than Carr ^[9] .

• The name of Guy Goma caused jokes and puns. The reason was the homonym guy, which means “guy” in English. Goma’s most famous nickname is Wrong Guy, “Not That Guy” and “Not That Guy” at the same time.
• In the Russian-language press and blogosphere, Guy Goma unexpectedly became a contender for the position of cleaner in the BBC technical department. This happened due to the incorrect transfer of the Data support cleanser post, because the word cleanser in English also means “detergent” and, possibly, similar to cleaner - “cleaner”. Some media outlets preferred the cautious “worker” ^[10] .
• The incident itself with the live broadcast of an outsider, as well as the reaction of the presenter Karen Bowerman to the first Goma’s remarks are also associated with the interpretation. The word interview can be translated from English into Russian both as “interview” and as “interview”.

• In the fifth episode of the second season of the series " Computers " Moss finds himself in a situation very similar to that of Guy Goma. One of the creators of the series, Graham Linehan, spoiled the story after he saw an interview record on the Internet.
• The situation of an unintentional substitution of an interviewee live in the English language was called Guy Goma Incident - “Guy Goma Incident”.

• History of BBC News
• Guy Goma Interview Transcript
• Exposed: The identity of the new BBC star The Mail on Sunday , May 13, 2006, is established.
• Guy Goma got into the movie Globa-Tech Today , August 28, 2006
• Guy Goma Signs for President

• Original BBC Interview Video
• Second interview for the BBC
• Interview for Channel 4 (inaccessible link)
• Interview for GMTV (inaccessible link)