A New Zealand cabinet minister’s TV interview was interrupted by her son, who entered the room excitedly waving a phallic carrot. The minister has become the latest public figure to be embarrassed by an unfortunate incident involving a video call.

Carmel Sepuloni, minister for social development, was on a live Zoom interview with Radio Samoa when her grinning son entered the room, holding an oddly shaped carrot.

Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, people across the globe have been working from home and there are numerous videos on social media of remote television interviews being interrupted by irrepressible children.

Video of Astronauts eating ‘floating pizza’ in space amazes internet

The minister tweeted the video and wrote “That moment when you’re doing a LIVE interview via Zoom & your son walks into the room shouting & holding a deformed carrot shaped like a male body part.”

New Zealand, which is currently under level 4 lockdown, has over 500 cases of COVID-19.

Sepuloni also gave a shout-out to other parents juggling home schooling and remote work. “A big ups to all our parents working from home and parenting at the same time – I see you!”

She added, “Note to self: I will never buy the odd shaped carrot pack again.”

Twitter users commented her video and shared how they have faced the same embarrasment.

One of the users wrote, “OMG I’ve taken to jamming my door shut as no one reads the sign that says I’m in video calls. My worst wasa giant teddy bear attacking me whilst i was on a work zoom.”

In the past, Prof Robert Kelly children wandered in as he was live on the BBC talking about South Korean politics, and Sky News foreign affairs editor Deborah Haynes son demanded “two biscuits” during her live report.

Screengrab of a video produced by New Zealand comedy duo Jono and Ben showing a woman in the shoes of professor Robert Kelly, whose interview with the BBC was famously interrupted by his children.