bojo footstool
© Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool via REUTERS
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson invoked the wrath of the Twitterati after appearing to disrespect France's Emmanuel Macron. However, video of the key moment shows that people jumped to the wrong conclusion.

The MSM denunciations of Johnson's apparent bad behavior came thick and fast as the well-timed snap was strewn across social media Thursday.

A picture may be worth a thousand words (or retweets perhaps) but in this instance the critical context was missing, as video of the alleged 'gaffe' shows.

Indeed, one political correspondent even suggested that Boris' apparent boorishness was actually in response to a joke the French leader had made.

"It seems President Macron was making small talk suggesting the table would work equally well as a footstool should the PM want to recline, which Johnson then jokingly does,"tweeted Sky News' Tom Rayner.

While various video versions of the event have each accrued more than 500,000 views, that likely won't compare with the millions of views on the still image, captured at just the 'right' moment.

"I suspect even Macron didn't realise with how much relish the British press and MPs (@wesstreeting) would jump on it without checking first," tweeted one commenter.