Weather ‘wizard’ wows Thailand with Facebook filter fail (Video)

It’s hard to take storm warnings seriously when they’re coming from a talking raccoon.

A top government meteorological said today that he was “extremely embarrassed” by a Facebook live video in which he claims that he “forgot” to turn off the fun, augmented-reality filter. The apology came after Phuwieng Phrakhammintara became something of a hit online for delivering an otherwise humorless weather forecast as several bizarre entities Tuesday, including a wizard, Olympic gold medalist and what we can only assume to be Frank Sinatra.  

“I saw the clip after a meeting at about 7pm because a lot of my friends sent me the video. My son also sent it to me. I laughed really hard, it’s so funny. I’m really embarrassed, but it’s okay,” Phuwieng told reporters.

Was not noticing such a thing really possible? Skeptical here, but we’ll give his team the benefit of the doubt.

Phuwieng said one of his colleagues noticed the filter was on after they started recording and tried to turn it off but only succeeded in changing the filter several times before removing it.

The video became the Meteorological Department’s most-viewed video ever by a very huge margin. While other videos rack up about 10,000 views to 30,000 views in their lifetimes, the wacky live session has already been watched 278,000 times in a single day. 

Phuwieng said that he just couldn’t even as the comical moment came during an announcement about something so serious – the arrival of another powerful storm on the destructive heels of the last – but is happy he could make people laugh.

“A lot of people watched the video and commented positively. The kids seem to like it, and that makes me happy. I’m happy that this made children watch the news for once!” he said. 

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