Royals and humour usually go together like royals and long, fruitful marriage, or royals and being able to sweat. But now King Charles has embarked on his stand-up tour of the United States, and slayed our American cousins with a volley of zingers, albeit the sort of zingers written by a balding equerry who went to Eton and then the Grenadiers. Real slice of life stuff. Like this: “Now, I know you have big plans for the moon, Mr President, but I’ve actually checked the papers and I rather suspect it is already part of the Commonwealth, I’m afraid.” (Wait, is it?)
Or this: “Indeed, you recently commented, Mr. President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German. Dare I say that, if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French.” One wonders whether Trump even understood the historical reference, and the two figures seemed to exist for a moment in separate time signatures, or perhaps even separate eras, as Trump grinned with pained narcissism around the room. Charles from some long, sweet, lost Twentieth Century of the soul; Trump from the horrid, tacky, hunchback present. Makes you almost proud to have an unelected leader. America will soon know how that feels, too.
But let’s keep things straightforward, straightforward for now. Here are the five best jokes from the Royal Family — with “best”, “jokes”, and even “from” entirely open to interpretation.