The video: Switzerland's finance minister, Hans Rudolf-Merz, has become an unlikely YouTube sensation. In a video that has garnered nearly one million views, Merz dissolves into a fit of laughter while answering questions about cured meats before the parliament. The 67-year-old Swiss politico, who is due to retire soon, can't keep a straight face as he stumbles through bureaucratic language about an air-dried beef product called "Bündnerfleisch."
The reaction: "It's really quite cute," says Mary Vallis at Canada's National Post. Sure he's faced intense domestic criticism "for signing away much of Switzerland's banking secrecy and failing to secure the release of two Swiss citizens held by Libya," says Jenny Percival at The Guardian, but this giggling fit "offers some hope for a more positive legacy and has prompted speculation that he has a future career as a comedian." It seems even to have helped the dehydrated meat industry, says Damien Pearse at Sky News Online. One purveyor already changed their advertising slogan to, "Never lose your sense of humor." Watch the clip:
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