Isla Campbell covers the monarchy so you can have an informed opinion at dinner
By Isla Campbell | Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
The Week in Royals
The monarchy had a week. All weeks are royal weeks now – the machinery of constitutional monarchy produces content at a rate that would exhaust a Kardashian – but this one had particular texture. There were engagements. There were photographs. There was a hat that generated more column inches than the Budget, which is either a comment on the hat or the Budget, and I have read both and I am not sure which.
The Comedy of Deference
The great tradition of royal parody in British comedy has always operated in the margin between reverence and mockery, which is extremely thin and extremely productive. The British public simultaneously believes that the monarchy is important, finds it faintly ridiculous, and would not do away with it primarily because they genuinely cannot imagine what we would put on the tea towels instead. This is not hypocrisy. This is a mature relationship with an institution that has outlived every rational justification for its existence and kept going anyway, which is actually quite admirable.
BBC Royal coverage is impeccable and utterly without humour, which means it requires a companion read at The British Magazine to get the full picture. I provide this service. It is my calling.
Central London, Ground Level
I watched the changing of the guard this week as a professional exercise. A tourist next to me asked if it was real. I said yes, all of it is real, the hats are real, the ceremony is real, the slightly glazed look on the guardsmen’s faces after forty-five minutes of standing absolutely still is also extremely real. He seemed reassured. Bohiney Magazine would have found a satirical angle. I found myself moved, which is either a sign of growth or Stockholm syndrome. I report; you decide.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
Royal adjacent comedy: NewsThump
