Is the Australian parliament really that boring? It seems that rather than listen to their colleagues blabber about issues that affect the whole country, politicians find mundane things much more interesting, such as eating one’s own hair. Australian Labor Party rep Gary Gray has been caught on camera seemingly having a taste of his crowning glory.

In the short video clip that is becoming viral on various joke sites, while his colleague David Feeney was addressing the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Minister for Resources and Energy is seen taking interest in something else.

Sitting behind Mr Feeney on the frontbench, Mr Gray scratches his head and pulls a strand from his scalp. After briefly examining his find, he puts it in his mouth and chews it.

It’s not clear what was it that he found stuck in his hair, though news site news.com.au assumed that he was having minor dandruff issue.

Commenters on the Web site Reddit mostly found Mr Gray’s chimp-like grooming style hilarious, but there were also a few who showed actual concern.

“He’s likely a trichotillomaniac,” one poster wrote, referring to a person suffering from the compulsive urge to pull out and, in some cases, eat one’s own hair.

“As someone who suffers from trichotillomania, I think that might be exactly what it is. When I am unmedicated, I do the same thing. It’s compulsive, and that may be why it never occurred to him that the camera might be catching his habit. Sometimes it becomes almost unconscious,” another user provided.

Perhaps Mr Gray was just bored or maybe he was really hungry. Or it could also be that he just couldn’t take Mr Feeney’s speech anymore. But whatever the case was, the short video makes for a very entertaining watch.

This isn’t the first time an Australian politician has been caught on camera absentmindedly munching on something they found on their body.

A clip of Kevin Rudd eating his own earwax emerged a month before the general election in 2007. The clip was estimated to be taken before 2003 while he was sitting on the backbenches while a colleague was delivering a speech, but the timing of its release was feared to ruin his chances of winning the election as prime minister.

It didn’t.