Community Corner

Flour Fiasco Family Appears on 'Today Show' for Viral Video

The Napoli family of St. Clair Shores appeared on the Today Show Wednesday morning to describe how their two boys spread flour throughout their living room, and defend the authenticity of the viral video that has become a YouTube sensation.

It's a situation nearly every parent has experienced - their children get into the cooking pantry, utensil closet or even the bag of dog food and create a mess.

But not every messy situation goes viral and is seen by more than one million people.

For the Napoli family of St. Clair Shores, that was just the case.

Find out what's happening in St. Clair Shoreswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While Mary Napoli took a five-minute bathroom break, her two young sons got into a kitchen cabinet, took out a bag of flour and spread it across the family living room. This included over the sofa, family photos and nearly every corner of the room.

After taking a deep breath, she got her video camera and captured the flour avalanche. She uploaded the video to YouTube to share with family and it became an Internet sensation.

Find out what's happening in St. Clair Shoreswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Nearly one million people watched the video, but it also created a bit of controversy by some who questioned if the whole thing was created for video.

The family traveled to New York and appeared Wednesday morning on the Today Show and was interviewed by Matt Lauer.

"Is it kids behaving badly or adults behaving badly?" he asked.

"It is both. I left the child safety lock off that cabinet door and went to the bathroom too long," Mary Napoli confessed. "It is my fault for that. They did the work themselves."

She told a national audience that she was "under the weather" when it occurred. She said it took seven hours to clean up the mess.

Vince Napoli even challenged other parents to give their children a bag of flour.

"We challenge those people to give their 3-year-old and 1 1/2-year old a bag of flour and try it," he said. "It just flies."

When Lauer asked why she sounded so calm during the video, Napoli said that she didn't want to swear on family video, "That's ridiculous."


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