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Should Prince Harry be stripped of his royal titles?
The Duke of Sussex joined Stephen Colbert last week, spoofing this year’s crop of Christmas films and taking some digs at Donald Trump.
The audience loved it — with those in the studio giving Harry a standing ovation.
Meanwhile, Harry’s most vocal critics are calling for him to lose his titles.
Not everyone enjoyed Prince Harry’s cameo on ‘The Late Show’
On Wednesday, December 3, Prince Harry appeared in a guest spot on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colbert had just rattled off a list of Hallmark (and Hallmark-adjacent) films that connected Christmas and fictional royalty, usually as an American encounters a European royal by chance and falls in love.
Harry pretended to have stumbled into the studio while looking to audition.
“Well, you Americans are obsessed with Christmas movies and you’re clearly obsessed with royalty, so why not?” he quipped during the scripted moment.
After Colbert feigned to disagree, Harry noted: “I heard you elected a king.”
Harry’s joke about America having “elected a king” was a reference to Donald Trump, whose bizarre behavior and authoritarian rule have both invited comparisons to the madness of King George.
(George III is Harry’s grandfather times six and times five, because European royalty really is like that)
For the record, the prince also took a jab at Paramount for having paid an 8-figure “settlement,” which critics have understandably characterized as a bribe, to appease Trump.
This is the same company that canceled The Late Show, which just about everyone — including Trump — believes was done to cater to his wishes.
As we reported last week, most American viewers — whether they were in the audience or on social media — enjoyed Harry’s royal cameo. But, as we also reported, some folks across the pond lashed out with rage.
Should Prince Harry lose his titles over this?
If you look through Prince Harry’s outspoken critics on social media, the most unhinged of the group called for him to lose his titles.
The Royalist echoed this call, writing that Harry making digs at Trump constitutes a potential diplomatic crisis.
Ostensibly, this is because the British monarch acts as ceremonial head of state. So while it’s not the same as the Prime Minister dissing another head of state, it’s perhaps more comparable to if a First Lady were trash-talking a world leader.
Well, no. That would be if Charles were roasting Trump on his obvious cognitive decline or his MRI boasts or how he keeps harming the economy for no reason. This is more like if, what, Tiffany Trump made a scripted joke about Keir Starmer.
The key difference is that no one — least of all her father — cares what Tiffany says or does. Unfortunately for Harry, there are a lot of people who track his every move in order to put him on blast.
To be clear, some of the reactions to Harry showing up stemmed from people who never saw the footage.
There are people who simply read a headline and assumed that they knew the article’s contents. Some didn’t even do that.
Misinformation also spread on social media, as it tends to do. Some believed that Harry had sat down for an interview in which he’d weighed in on politics. That is simply not what happened.
Some critics don’t expect King Charles or even eventual King William to strip Harry of his titles.
There were those who called upon Parliament to take this into their own hands.
This isn’t really about diplomacy, is it?
Insofar as Donald Trump is consistent about anything, he doesn’t seem to have any interest in deporting or otherwise waging a campaign of terror against Prince Harry. He’s said as much.
Obviously, Trump is a notorious bobblehead — someone who nods along with the opinions of whoever he last hung out with. So if a Harry-hating royalist spoke pleasantly to him for long enough, he’d likely change his mind.
Realistically, the people calling for Harry to lose his titles probably aren’t truly concerned about diplomatic matters. These are Brits who loathe Harry for marrying Meghan Markle and for undermining the British monarchy.
But, his appearance on Colbert gave American viewers one more reason to appreciate him. And it gave royalists their latest ammo to fire at him.
From the moment that he was born, no one has been “normal” about Harry. A couple of decades ago, he was a sex symbol. Now, his home country has all but declared him anathema. None of this is his fault, and none of this is fair.
Prince Harry MUST Lose Titles After Colbert Cameo to Avoid Diplomatic Incident, Royalists … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.