And a few words on the hot topic.
Three years ago, before one of those ceremonial (and also chatty and bubbly) college events, L. and I were talking to a group of academics, waiting for the beginning of the feast. The atmosphere was dazzling, and everything was going great.
Usually people there divide into smaller groups, where everyone is exercising their endearing wit, and at that exact moment L. decided to show people a fragment from a newly released Bad Lip Reading* video about Harry & Megan’s Royal Wedding. The video was hilarious (if you haven't seen it yet, I strongly recommend it to you—especially the part about “the Golden Unicycle”), and our friends were seemingly enjoying it. Until the moment when a fellow academic passed by and noticed that the people in the group were laughing.
Amused, they asked L. what exactly he was showing on his phone. L. pointed to the screen, still smiling and saying, “Just have a look yourself.”
“Wait. What?” said they. “You want me to watch THAT? This royal something?!” The level of disgust on their face was unmistakable and could be translated as semi-exquisite “How dare you.”
L. tried to make an excuse, insisting that it’s legit and funny, but it was too little too late. His (and my at this point, although I am not sure the person even noticed my existence) reputation was ruined forever. To follow any type of royal activity was regarded as the lamest faux pas and mauvais ton altogether.
And this little scene shows quite clearly how a certain demographic (i.e. middle class educated Cambridge folks, also called the “liberal metropolitan elite”) seem to react to everything royal and the like: they don’t. Or they try hard not to.
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* A well-known YouTube series where the anonymous creators make comic lip-synch videos based on the extracts from the famous films/tv shows/official events.
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