For some reason, the US public and media seem to have an endless and deep fascination with the parasitic, good-for-nothing, British royal family. There seems to be something about all the pomp and pageantry associated with them that makes them go weak at the knees and completely lose their sense of reason, something that I wrote about in 2009 in a post titled God save us from the Queen on the occasion of the Obamas’ visit to England.
So I was glad to learn from Stephen Colbert that one prankster took advantage of this mindless obsession to pull a great gag on the media. Serves them right.
The Colbert Report
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(This clip aired on July 25, 2013. To get suggestions on how to view clips of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report outside the US, please see this earlier post.)
Apparently he really is a town crier, but not the town crier of London. That position has not been filled since the death of the previous one some years ago. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/24/rachel-maddow-admits-royal-screwup/
One obsolete tradition announcing the continuation of another obsolete tradition — what could be more appropriate?
The US fought an actual war to be free of this “King” nonsense. I guess it is far enough in the past that people have forgotten why. I know, growing up in Ireland, I took great pride in the fact that our last king died centuries ago. No more kings.
I know. One can’t really justify it but I quite enjoy the pageantry. In our celebrity-obsessed culture I much prefer it to say the Kardashians, with whom I have no interest in keeping up with whatsoever. So yes, it is celebrity fluff but it does serve as a reasonably effective focus of national pride and unity. Of course, its only justification is historical; one wouldn’t install such a system today.
I think that’s why they do it. After all that, it would be too much to accept that the British and Americans ended up in basically equivalent places, freedom and opportunity-wise, notwithstanding the British Royal Family Soap Opera.
You sound like some heretic who doesn’t think the Pope could give away what was not his to give …
On a parasitism scale from 1 to 10, I’d put the Windsors at 1, and the Financial/Political/Media complex at 10.
“an endless and deep fascination”
You clearly never have googled on “Koninginnedag foto” (Queen’s Day picture). Don’t -- it’s bad for your digestive system.
So I googled and my digestive system is intact. (The notion that passive Dutch = (English + German)/2 is not quite right, but--ok.) The constitutional monarchies of continental Europe seem to me to solve the Head of State Problem in a civilized manner, though I can’t understand why the Netherlands would have dropped a republican constitution once it more-or-less existed. The only thing bad for the digestive system was all that orange 😎 (old college rivalry color).
That’s usually the only down side to watching the Dutch national soccer team play in their first choice colours.
On that scale is 1 the least or worst parasitic, Rob?