A teleprompt blunder has led to Barack Obama thanking himself in a speech at the White House in a St Patrick's Day celebration.
Obama and the Irish PM share the joke during their joint address
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address in Washington when he realised it all sounded a bit too familiar.
It was. He was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.
Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: "That's your speech."
A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally been switched and the US president ended up thanking himself for inviting everyone to the party.
Mr Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the "teleprompt president" over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.
Earlier in the day, the president claimed an Irish ancestry, saying his mother's family could be traced back to Ireland.
He joked to Cowen: "We may be cousins. We haven't sorted that through yet."
Speaking in the Oval Office, he told the Irish premier:"Not all Americans are Irish but all Americans support those who stand on the side of peace and peace will prevail."
Why can Obama not go anywhere without a teleprompter anyway? :eyeroll: