Dear Friends:
“Mr. McAdams, how does it feel to be the most famous man in the world?”
This is not how most of my press appearances begin and it is the concluding chapter of perhaps the strangest 24 hours of my life. But thus began my interview on India’s Times Now Television this morning as a follow up to one of the craziest and – even just 24 hours later – the most-watched moments of television history!
For those who haven’t seen it, I was invited for the first time to be a guest on one of India’s top English language television stations. I figured that since India’s a huge country and there must a good-sized audience, it might be a good opportunity to inform non-American viewers that there are perspectives on foreign policy here that, though widely-held, rarely get an airing on mainstream outlets.
What followed was an incredible comedy of errors that is less funny if it is explained. It can be viewed here.
No comedy writer could have penned a more hilarious madcap back-and-forth, because this was purely authentic.
What followed was completely unexpected. Twitter users across India viewed and retweeted the video at this point almost 13 million times. For many hours “Mr. McAdams” was trending number one on Twitter India. Clever Indians made endless hilarious memes about the craze mix-up. For example:
