The Wit and Humour of Prince Philip

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Little_star

According to the various news articles this was the first thing he said to the gentleman in question upon meeting him.

It's sad to know that despite, what is probably, decades of hard work, dedication and sacrifice the first thing one of most senior royals chose to comment upon was this man's name.

It doesn't say much for Philip.

Another way to see it is that he had paid enough attention to know the man's name and was able to break the ice between them with a comment that the other man didn't see as offensive. He personalised his opening comment - rather than 'How do you do?' he immediately showed some affinity with the man.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Little_star

It's sad to know that despite, what is probably, decades of hard work, dedication and sacrifice the first thing one of most senior royals chose to comment upon was this man's name.

It doesn't say much for Philip.

Quite probably, they went on to discuss Mr Patels achievements. It may not say much about Philip to some but it certainly says a great deal about the people taking up arms on behalf of Mr Patel, who by all accounts laughed about it!

[Duke of Marmalade]

good to see that there are still people out there who haven't lost their sense of humour in these over-political-correct times.

Not sure this has been posted yet:
Philip's Top 15 Gaffes:

1. China State Visit, 1986
If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.
2. To a blind women with a guide
“Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?”
3. To an Aborigine in Australia
“Do you still throw spears at each other?”
4. To his wife, the Queen, after her coronation
“Where did you get the hat?”
5. When asked if he would like to visit the Soviet Union
“The bastards murdered half my family”
6. To a Briton in Budapest
“You can’t have been here that long – you haven’t got a pot belly.”
7. To a driving instructor in Scotland
“How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?”
8. After the Dunblane shooting
“If a cricketer, for instance, suddenly decided to go into a school and batter a lot of people to death with a cricket bat, which he could do very easily, I mean, are you going to ban cricket bats?”
9. To a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea
“You managed not to get eaten, then?”
10. To Elton John after hearing Elton had sold his Gold Aston Martin
“Oh, it’s you that owns that ghastly car – we often see it when driving to Windsor Castle.”
11. On the London Traffic Debate
“The problem with London is the tourists. They cause the congestion. If we could just stop tourism, we could stop the congestion.”
12. To the President of Nigeria, dressed in traditional robes
“You look like you’re ready for bed!”
13. Unknown
“If you see a man opening a car door for a woman, it means one of two things: it’s either a new woman or a new car!”
14. On key problems facing Brazil
“Brazilians live there”
15. To the matron of a hospital in the Caribbean
“You have mosquitos. I have the Press”

My favourite, not listed:
If it has got four legs and is not a chair, if it has two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it.
(Prince Philip commenting on Chinese eating habits to World Wildlife Fund conference in 1986)

Some more:
Are you Indian or Pakistani? I can never tell the difference between you chaps.
(Prince Philip at Washington Embassy reception for Commonwealth members)

British women can't cook. They are very good at decorating food and making it attractive. But they have an inability to cook.
(Prince Philip sddressing mainly female audience at Scottish Rural Women's Institute Display in 1966)

If you travel as much as we do, you appreciate how much more aircraft have become. Unless you travel in something called economy class, which sounds ghastly.
(Prince Philip during Royal Jubilee tour in 2002)

I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.
(Prince Philip speech in December 1988, dismissing claims who sell slaughtered meat have greater moral authority than those who participate in blood sports)

Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf.
(Prince Philip to group of deaf children standing next to Jamaican steel drum band, on visit to new National Assembly for Wales, 1999)

Dontopedalogy is the science of opening your mouth and putting your foot in it, a science which I have practiced for a good many years.
(Prince Philip address to General Dental Council, quoted in Time November 21, 1960)

Tolerance is the one essential ingredient … You can take it from me that the Queen has the quality of tolerance in abundance.
(Prince Philip on his recipe for a successful marriage, during celebrations for their golden wedding anniversary, November 1997)

I can only assume that it is largely due to the accumulation of toasts to my health over the years that I am still enjoying a fairly satisfactory state of health and have reached such an unexpectedly great age.
(Prince Philip speech to Corporation of the City of London, June 2001)

[Dierna23]

Thank you for posting this summary. I remember two or three more which were some of my favorites, but I have to do a research for it. One of my alltime favorites is Nr. 2 on the list. Totally political incorrect and some may say distasteful, but for my own sense of humour (I love black humour) it's just splendid.

[Zonk]

Some may call it too much political correctness, but I can see where others might be offended.

The implication is that all Indians look alike, and you can't tell one from another. As if there is no individuality. And everyone one with the last name Patel is closely related. Would one assume that if your last name was Smith, Williams or Jones?

I think we can all agree that in this world we all come from a variety of different cultures and religions and therefore it is not shocking that people see things different then others. Therefore that is why some people are offended by statements such as these and others are not.

In regards to some of Prince Phillip's documented so called gaffe's. I can certainly understand and sympathize with #5.

[Al_bina]

Originally Posted by MARG

... [snipped]
Since he has not been diagnosed with dementia or altzheimers I think you just might be correct?
And you know that this spritely and cuttingly witty Octaganarian makes gaffes because?

Gaffe : A clumsy social error; a faux pas: or a social blunder, esp a tactless remark.

Somehow I just can't get my head around the idea that Prince Philip is a gaffe-prone diplomatic landmine. A noted raconteur, he has forgotten more about the social graces than most of us could begin to know.

It is obvious to me that the slightest whiff of humour obviously needs to be ruthlessly stamped out, pummelled to death by the joyless gits of this world! Just as youth is wasted on the young, so too is wit wasted on the witless! ...[snipped]

It has been kind of you to comment on my post. Humour is the matter of one's cultural background. As far as I understand the information in this thread, offending people with ambiguous remarks is the British humour. Prince Philip definitely excels at doing so.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Zonk

The implication is that all Indians look alike, and you can't tell one from another. As if there is no individuality. And everyone one with the last name Patel is closely related. Would one assume that if your last name was Smith, Williams or Jones?.

No, that was not the implication at all, in my very British humoured opinion and yes it is a running joke that everyone named Smith, Jones, Williams, McDonald, Cameron and Campbell is related in some way.

Originally Posted by Al bina

offending people with ambiguous remarks is the British humour. Prince Philip definitely excels at doing so

No it is not, I feel you are looking at this with a non British sense of humour, there is never any offense intended!

[Wisteria]

I believe you have to be British to have a British sense of humour, but there are lots of other nationalities who appreciate it.
I think he is hilarious and not a mean bone in him. If people are offended by what he says it is is because, to paraphrase common saying - "the offense is in the ear of the listener" .

[Little_star]

Originally Posted by Zonk

Some may call it too much political correctness, but I can see where others might be offended.

The implication is that all Indians look alike, and you can't tell one from another. As if there is no individuality. And everyone one with the last name Patel is closely related. Would one assume that if your last name was Smith, Williams or Jones?

I think we can all agree that in this world we all come from a variety of different cultures and religions and therefore it is not shocking that people see things different then others. Therefore that is why some people are offended by statements such as these and others are not.

In regards to some of Prince Phillip's documented so called gaffe's. I can certainly understand and sympathize with #5.

Great post, Zonk.

I realise that some poeple may mourn the los of the days when they could make racist and bigoted comments without fear of a reaction but the people on the receiving end are probably thankful they are long gone.

Moreover I don't think his remark was racist, rude and tactless most definitely. It's interesting to see the way some posters will attack the moment somebody questions Philip's commentary though.

[Skydragon]

Originally Posted by Little_star

I realise that some poeple may mourn the los of the days when they could make racist and bigoted comments without fear of a reaction but the people on the receiving end are probably thankful they are long gone.

had the gentleman he was meeting been from Wales and been called Jones, Philip would have made a similar comment, without the 'rude and tactless' from a handful of people.

It's interesting to see the way some posters will attack the moment somebody questions Philip's commentary though.

I haven't seen any 'attacks', apart from those determined to take offense where none was taken!

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

had the gentleman he was meeting been from Wales and been called Jones, Philip would have made a similar comment, without the 'rude and tactless' from a handful of people.I haven't seen any 'attacks', apart from those determined to take offense where none was taken!

So true.

I too could imagine Philip in Wales with a man named Jones saying somehthing similar and no one would be upset.

It is because we are so sensitive to upsetting people of colour (due to past racism of course) that people are prepared to see racism everywhere rather than see a comment for what it was - a comment about a name that showed an understanding that there are many people with that name amongst the Indian population, as an ice-breaker to put a man at ease and a sense of humour from a man who certainly has one - unlike many people I know.

[susan alicia]

some of his remarks are innocent and funny, others I can give the benefit of the doubt but this one, posted by the Duke of Marmelade:

........I don't think a prostitute is more moral than a wife, but they are doing the same thing.
(Prince Philip speech in December 1988, dismissing claims who sell slaughtered meat have greater moral than those who participate in blood sports)..........

his example is strange. I agree about his viewpoint re selling slaughtered meat but I find his example to prove the point strange and do not understand it, it depends on the wife and the prostitute I suppose, both can be very moral in their own way.

[Wisteria]

I agree that was way over the top. But the one that really bothers me is the one about Dunblane. Otherwise I find him hilarious.

[Skydragon]

He is saying that a wife and prostitute both offer sex, a butcher and a hunter are both involved with the death of animals, therefore neither can claim the moral high ground.

[MARG]

Originally Posted by Wisteria

I agree that was way over the top. But Otherwise I find him hilarious.

Over the top maybe, but unfortunately often true.

Originally Posted by Wisteria

But the one that really bothers me is the one about Dunblane.

I think his analogy is accurate, sensitive, yet utterly true. The firearms laws in Britain are adequate and to quote the tired old addage, "guns don't kill people . . . . people kill people".

[Wisteria]

Originally Posted by MARG

Over the top maybe, but unfortunately often true.I think his analogy is accurate, sensitive, yet utterly true. The firearms laws in Britain are adequate and to quote the tired old addage, "guns don't kill people . . . . people kill people".

Actually with me it isn´t so much the mention of guns that bothered me, it was all those little children dead and their parents having to hear it. that´s all. I would be a hypocrite if I said I had never handled a gun. I used to love hunting with my father until I became sensitive to the idea of killing for sport and now it abhors me. His words "batter children to death" really make me shudder.

[Al_bina]

Originally Posted by Skydragon

He is saying that a wife and prostitute both offer sex, a butcher and a hunter are both involved with the death of animals, therefore neither can claim the moral high ground.

I think that this particular pearl of Prince Philip's humour is the worst than any of his race-themed comments. I am curious as to if Prince Philip's observation can be applied to his spouse and his marital life.

[MARG]

After such an apalling incident there is usually the prerequisite kneejeck reaction. Lets ban guns. But that is just a sop to make the victims somehow feel that the problem is being addressed. Needless to say it is not.

It has been my experience that people process untimely deaths in different ways. If a drunk driver kills someone nobody decides that the cure is the complete ban on sale and service of alcohol. Dealing to the driver is the only satisfaction a family can get.

Similarly outlawing the smacking of children has not prevented the abuse and murder of children.

There are unstable people in our world and some can wreck havoc, but treating them is the only answer that makes any sense.

It's the pithy, non-politically correct Prince Philip's of this world who tell it like it is, not how to provide a PC band aid.

Above all, we must also remember that these oft quoted "gaffes" are taken out of time and context, more often than not, on a slow news week.

[Wisteria]

This is completely off topic I am sure. But I am wondering if we are talking about the same thing. "incident" it was the massacre of 16 little children all near 6 years old and their teacher by a man armed to the teeth who shot them indiscriminately when they were having a gym lesson. While we enjoy Prince Philip´s humour, and I for one do, let us have a little thought for those children.

[Lumutqueen]

Originally Posted by Duke of Marmalade

Philip's Top 15 Gaffes:

I love all of the above, the dunblane one in my eyes is a fair comment. I don't believe he meant it in any didrespect to the families of the dead.
It is a good job he said some of those in past years and not now, they would not have gone down so well.