EPISODE 729: GOD SAVE...

Jim McDermott

Sep 12, 2022

Royal Supporter ♔ @FanCambridges

It’s sad to know the queen has left Balmoral for the last time, it was her happy place. #QueenElizabeth

POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW

So Long, The Queen of Britain

Queen Elizabeth died on Thursday.

Since then a million pieces have been written about her. One that has really stayed with me is this piece from Vulture, which points out that there will not be another Queen of England in any of our lifetimes. Barring disaster, Charles will be followed by William, who will be followed by his eldest, 9 year old Prince George.

In a sense, who cares? After 70 years of one person in the role, probably it’s good to mix things up. And we Americans are just spectators on all this anyway.

But at a time when it’s so clear that we need more diversity in world leadership, to watch England prepare to install a whole line of white men in that role just seems so out of touch.

Moments like this don’t help, either.

Elizabeth very much understood her role as to be present to the country without being involved in the politics. That certainly frustrated people at times, like when the country got involved in the Americans’ war against Iraq or in recent years surrounding the (dis)organization of Brexit, but her silence also gave her gravitas. She seemed to be like the country’s grandmother, always there and wearing fantastic bright outfits that signaled a certain confidence and happiness, but never publicly expressing any judgment.

Maybe her Grandma vibe is why it seems like many Americans identified with her too. She’s been there literally our entire lives. Maybe we took solace in the stability she offered.

EARTHQUAKE ELIZABETH

The other great article on the Queen this week comes from Ryan Broderick at Garbage Day, who spent his newsletter on Saturday trying to explain the massive variety of memes that have emerged from news of the Queen’s death, almost none of which make any sense to anyone who has not already been in on the “joke” being presented. It’s like a map of some of the fault lines of the internet, which I find absolutely fascinating.

Here’s the passage from the article I’m seeing quoted a bunch. It’s really a teaser for all the things you’re going to learn about in this article.

This is where things get sort interesting from a technical standpoint and also wildly confusing. Because the queen died, Princess Diana also started trending. Which then caused “Jung Kook” to trend, as well. Similarly, because, as I said, Tumblr users make jokes about breaking news events by using screencaps from the show Supernatural, that too started to trend alongside “Queen Elizabeth” on tumblr.
So we end up with this utterly bizarre algorithmic confluence of different, but linked memes happening simultaneously around one news topic: Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Trish Paytas, Jungkook from BTS, Sans from Undertale, Reigen from the anime Mob Psycho 100, the movie Megamind, the #Destiel ship from Supernatural, and, of course, crabs are all trending because of each other across Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok via their own community’s memes as well as screenshots of the other plarforms’ memes. And none of this is linear. It’s old memes combining with new memes, which all still currently evolving.

Pop Culture Lillibet

I was thinking I’d make some suggestions of pop culture stories about the Queen that you could look to if you’re somehow hungry for more Queen content. I figured there would be a lot to choose from, given just how long she was queen. But in fact there’s really just a handful of movies and TV shows, and in most of them she’s just a one-off joke or punch line, like when she gets jumped in Naked Gun, or she appears in a dream sequence in National Lampoon’s European Vacation or this scene from Minions.

This might be her most famous such appearance–and for once she plays herself (at least for a while).

But here are three other places you can look for Queen content.

The Queen

This movie, which starts with the death of Princess Diana, is by far the most famous movie about Queen Elizabeth. The movie is about new Prime Minister Tony Blair trying to teach Queen Elizabeth how to publicly express her grief, something she absolutely loathes doing.

The Queen is one of a series of movies and plays writer Peter Morgan did about Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth. They’re all very interesting, and a great preparation for his magnum opus…

The Crown

This Netflix six season series, which Morgan began in 2016, is THE story of the life and times of Queen Elizabeth and her family. It begins before she’s unexpectedly made queen, and works its way season by season through her life, in a way that is fascinating and also artful. Each episode is its own brilliant short story, and the overall story looks at the royal family with a rare empathy.

A Royal Night Out

This “Princesses Liz and Margaret sneak out of the castle on VE Day” story is a bit lesser known, but charming. Margaret is hilarious and clueless, and Liz’s relationship with Jack, an AWOL officer who doesn’t know who she is, has a lot of great conflict to it. It’s got none of the depth of Morgan’s work, but it still manages a nice sweetness and poignancy. There’s one moment in particular where Elizabeth goes with Jack to meet his mom that is unexpectedly wonderful. If you’re feeling all the feels for the Queen and want a little comfort, I would curl up with this and a glass of wine.

The Seven Names that Charles Rejected

Charles also took his royal name this week. It’s…drum roll…Vernon Jackson.

No no, it’s Charles III, which I thought was just standard operating procedure; you’re named Charles, you take Charles. That’s what Elizabeth did.

But in fact her father was Albert and took George. Queen Elizabeth I was actually Louise Abstinence; they called her Weezie. I kid you not. King Henry VIII was actually a nerdy kid called Darryl.

If you look at the history, Charles is…not exactly a name to aspire to. Charles I was accused of treason and executed. Charles II supposedly fathered 13 children by different women, none of whom were his wife.

Some of my sources in the palace have told me Charles did know of the hazards of his name, and considered others. But the list was pretty unusual.

Queen Elizabeth III—“It’s not like I’m going to be around long anyway,” he was overheard saying recently. “Plus everyone always sided with her and Daddy over me.”

King Henry IX—“I saw Six, and it gave me a whole new appreciation of King Henry VIII,” he told Prince William over dinner a few months ago. “He was a real baller, just like me.”

Arthur—At one point this was the odds on favorite. Charles even designed this whole moment in his coronation where he would step forward and pull a sword from a stone. The problem was, they could not find a sword that was light enough for him to lift.

BoJack—Charles actually had never heard of BoJack Horseman, nor did he know his entire family is always calling him this behind his back because of his long face. But I guess some of his younger cousins and nephews and nieces decided to try and convince Charles that BoJack was a regal character from pop culture that really resonated with younger people. And it sounds like they were actually swaying him when Catherine found out and literally freaked.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (pronounced “Larry”)—Charles went to school for a time in Wales, and he became very enamored of the country and its people before his parents got involved and put a stop to it. In a final act of defiance (as if), Charles considered going all in on a Welsh name and insisting that Welsh become the national language.

Prospero—Charles told Prince George he thought it might make him look smart if he chose a name from Shakespeare. George apparently replied, “That’s bollocks, grandpa.”

Susan Sarandon—Yeah, no one really understood this one. He’d been up all night brainstorming, he’d had a lot to drink. She’s amazing.

(All kidding aside, I feel for Charles. His mom just died and before she’s even buried he’s forced to wander the country drumming up support, because that’s the way they did it 1000 years ago. It’s ridiculous.)

Three Tweets About the Queen

Bro.