Here Are All of Prince Harry’s Cringey Jokes from His Comedy Debut
How do you tell a crappy comic “don’t quit your day job” when his day job is being his dad’s son — and he’s already tried to quit it?
As is typical for the last few years of the royal’s life, Prince Harry is in the headlines for making a fool of himself, only, this time, it was on purpose. The younger son of King Charles III of the United Kingdom tried his hand at comedy at the 17th Annual Stand Up for Heroes Benefit as part of the New York Comedy Festival last night in a video recorded for the event honoring America’s veterans and their families. The charity function was attended by A-listers like Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Tracy Morgan and Bruce Springsteen, who all bore witness to the army captain’s first attempts to make jokes after three years of being one.
Fortunately for the audience, Harry’s humor attempts were simply the intro to a more serious speech about veterans’ issues — following the admittedly necessary question over whether or not his very presence at the event was, itself, a joke, Harry advocated for better ginger representation at the black-tie proceedings in the video preamble to his speech.
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“As someone who never gets scrutinized, I haven't even had to prepare much,” Harry reportedly continued after the awkward intro, “But I have been working on this particular act for quite some time. And everyone I know tells me it's perfect. No, these aren't people who just tell me what I want to hear. Oh no.” Though these attempts at self-deprecation don’t play particularly well considering his recent relationship with public attention, Harry does deserve credit for writing the jokes himself — no speech-writer who charges royal family money would think, “I totally didn’t prepare a speech” was a solid bit.
The rest of Harry’s set was a much more on-topic and impassioned explanation of his personal connection to the issues faced by veterans on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. “I know our experiences and journeys to this point differ, but we are always connected through what we've learned as humans, what we faced as families, and how we've come out stronger because of our ability to listen, to understand and to support one another,” Harry addressed the American military community. “I am immensely grateful for this community, for the experiences of the past and present and for what you represent and how you show up.”
Thankfully, Harry’s stand-up set stopped the moment he started speaking about issues he takes seriously — otherwise our military would have a new reason to be upset with the British Royal Family.
