This is the hilarious moment a former mayor of Rio de Janeiro was caught with his pants down as he squatted on the toilet during an online city hall meeting.
Cesar Maia, 78, a three-time mayor of Rio, had joined other councillors for the on-screen session on June 5.
But as they settled down to council business, it became clear that Maia had other matters to attend to as his laptop camera tilted to show his compromising position.
The astonishing video footage of the meeting, which emerged on social media, shows Maia sitting on his lavatory with his trousers around his ankles.
The badly placed laptop camera clearly shows him leaning forward with his arms on his bare legs before he suddenly appeared to realise he was showing more than intended – and quickly grabbed the device, bringing the camera back up.
He was not quick enough to stop the other attendees from noticing, however.
The images then cut to session leader Pablo Mello, sitting in the council chamber, who was barely able to stop himself from laughing as he realised what is going on.
As he struggled to carry on with the agenda, he had to look away from the screen and push his microphone away to keep control of his mirth.
Then through gritted teeth, he pleaded: ‘Councilman Cesar Maia, I ask you to turn off the camera, please.’
A horrified Maia replied: ‘Of course.’
His image disappeared from the other councillors’ screens as they carried on without him, according to local media.
Maia’s embarrassing blunder is just the latest to befall workers and officials since virtual meeting became more commonplace during the pandemic.
Amid Covid-19 lockdown rules, Zoom and other video call services became the ultimate hub for hosting meetings, weddings, christenings and funerals.
Although the idea seemed ideal at the time (at least for those who prefer tackling daily life from the comfort of their sofa) the shift to the digital world came with its own set of problems for everyone connecting in real-time via webcam.
In May 2020, a businessman was left in a nightmare position after accidentally leaving on his camera while taking a shower during a Zoom meeting – also in Brazil.
But this wasn’t just any ordinary meeting: the slip-up happened on a virtual conference call with Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro.
In hilarious screengrabs of the moment, a shirtless man – reportedly one of the federation’s advisers – can be seen next to 24 stone-faced officials.
Bolsonaro interrupted the call to say they had ‘unfortunately’ seen the man, fully naked in the shower. Fortunately for the showering man, he was not identified.
That same month, a New Zealand councillor – Cr David Benson-Pope – shocked his Dunedin Council colleagues and viewers watching a livestreamed council meeting when he entered his study with his bare legs on show.
Dressed-up in a suit jacket and work shirt, the former Labour cabinet minister appeared to be not wearing any pants as he did a spot of cleaning with a feather duster during an adjournment as he waited for the meeting to continue.
After footage of the moment began circulating online, the unfortunate Benson-Pope was forced to clarify that he had in fact been wearing shorts as he he had just returned from gardening prior to the meeting.
Then in July 2020, Bernardo Bustillo, who worked as a part-time councillor for the Torrelavega community in Cantabria, northern Spain, decided to take a shower during the middle of a meeting – not realising his camera was still on.
And in October 2020, at the peak of the Covid pandemic, a mother from the United States accidentally flashed her young son’s entire class when she strolled into the frame of the virtual lesson completely naked.
From across the pond in Canada, a lawmaker was returning from a jog in 2021 before a virtual legislative meeting with the House of Commons.
But William Amos, 46, who represents parts of Quebec, failed to notice his camera was on as he stepped out of his running gear and into something more appropriate for his home office.
He was then spotted completely nude during the House of Commons meetings, flanked by a Canadian and Quebec flag on either side.
Amos, who is married with two kids, apologised for the ‘unfortunate error’.
And in another famous incident, a Texas lawyer accidentally left a kitten filter on during a Zoom hearing in February 2021, hilariously telling the judge ‘I’m not a cat’ as he frantically tried to remove the animated image.
More recently (to the horror of those who still use webcam on a regular basis) a businesswoman accidentally filmed herself naked in the shower in front of several other remote mourners.
But to make matters worse, the woman was attending the virtual funeral of a much-respected father-of-three who died after a long battle with cancer.