[imagesource: Getty]
The Queen tends to come across as a little stern, which is a demeanour that didn’t do her many favours when Diana died.
I’ll give her this – she keeps it together in some tense situations. It must have taken some serious willpower to bite her tongue when she was forced to hang out with Donald Trump during his state visit.
When we think of witty gaffes, the Royal that comes to mind is Prince Philip, even though most of them are racist.
There’s a reason that you haven’t seen him speak publicly for decades. He’s a hazard.
Given the right circumstances, however, Queen Elizabeth can throw some serious shade.
Vogue collected a few of her best one-liners, starting with that time that she ran into some American tourists while walking the grounds of Balmoral with her protection officer.
When asked if she’d “ever met the Queen”, she responded “no”, then gestured to her officer saying “but he has”.
10 more great moments:
- On her 72nd wedding anniversary, she loudly asked during a public appearance: “What’s the date?”
- When the Queen’s cousin-in-law Princess Michael of Kent made a comment on TV about wanting to shoot her corgis, she responded: “They’re better behaved than she is.”
- At the 2016 Chelsea Flower Show, a gardener told her that lilies of the valley are poisonous to which she said: “I’ve been given two bunches this week. Perhaps they want me dead”.
- In 2007, Queen Elizabeth made an official visit to the White House. President George Bush, known for routinely sticking his foot in his mouth, said that the Queen helped Americans celebrate their bicentennial in 1776, not 1996. At a formal dinner two days later, she began her speech by saying, “I wondered whether I should start this toast by saying, ‘When I was here in 1776…”
- When visiting New Zealand in 1986, the Queen and Prince Philip were pelted by eggs by protesters. Later at dinner, she said: “New Zealand has long been renowned for its dairy produce, though I should say that I myself prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast”.
- As the world waited on the birth of Prince George (William and Kate’s spawn), the Queen was asked when the baby was due. She quipped: “I hope it arrives soon because I’m going on holiday”.
- In the 1960s she watched the Everly Brothers singing “Cathy’s Clown” and was visibly unimpressed. She muttered to her lady-in-waiting that they sounded like “two cats being strangled”.
- When a guard at the Royal Windsor Horse Show didn’t recognise her and told her that she couldn’t enter the grounds without a ticket she simply replied: “I think if you check, I will be allowed to come in!”
- During an interview for the documentary The Coronation, the Queen joked about the difficulties of wearing a crown: “You can’t look down to read the speech,” she said of donning the diadem during official ceremonies. “If you did, your neck would break.”
Finally, when during an argument the Queen Mother asked the Queen “Who do you think you are?”, Elizabeth ended the altercation with this:
“The Queen, mummy, the Queen.”
Mic drop.
We are amused.
[source:vogue]
