If you have seen the movie Being There with Peter Sellers, you know the scenario – ordinary Joe gets mistaken for pundit and everyone hangs on his every syllable.

Too far-fetched you say? Never happen? Well, thanks to posts by Jeremy Wagstaff and Dennis Howlett today, I came across a real life example of just this situation happening to the BBC!

Somehow the BBC mistook a taxi driver for Guy Kewney – the editor of NewsWireless.net – they had scheduled Guy to do an interview on the verdict handed down in the Beatles vs. Apple Computer case. However, they interviewed a taxi driver instead. The look on the taxi driver’s face when he is asked the first question is hilarious!

What is even funnier, however is how everyone in the BBC took everything this “Guy” said as gospel!

You couldn’t make it up (unless you are Being There’s author, obviously! And there’s even some dispute about that).

See the interview here.

UPDATE:
Ben Metcalfe (who works for the BBC) points out in the comments that the taxi driver in question wasn’t a taxi driver but was, in fact, there for an interview! See Ben’s post for more.