Name: Prince Louis of Cambridge.
Age: Four.
Appearance: Sailor-suited, “impish” and “iconic”.
Tell me this isn’t more royal coverage. Have we not all suffered enough? If his many and varied facial expressions over the marathon jubilee celebrations were anything to go by, I think Prince Louis would agree with you.
Enlighten me? I’ve been sealed in my bunting-proof chamber for the past week, reading Milton. He was widely declared to have stolen the show at Thursday’s trooping the colour, which he watched from the Buckingham Palace balcony. He dramatically covered his ears and roared, stuck his fingers in his mouth, looked thunderously disapproving as he saluted, and grimaced at the sky.
Fair enough; once you’ve seen one ridiculously overdressed man on a horse, you’ve seen them all. Leave Prince Charles out of this. Louis also did an anarchic little dance to the national anthem while standing next to the Queen.
— No Context Brits (@NoContextBrits) June 5, 2022
You’re almost making me regret my boycott. You might have also enjoyed Louis’s smörgåsbord of reactions to the interminable and utterly weird jubilee pageant yesterday. His epic fidgeting included puffed-cheek boredom, glaring, standing on his chair, covering his face with his hands, brandishing a cushion, crossing his arms huffily and some vigorous head-shaking.
Well, who can blame him? What four-year-old wants to sit for hours just to see Cliff Richard and Tony Blackburn on a bus? I thought you weren’t watching? Some blamed the prince for “showing up his mother”, especially during the minor meltdown when he held his hand over her mouth and stuck his tongue out at her.
Cheeky! More blamed her: “At what point do we go from ‘wow, what a relatable toddler moment’ to ‘wow, you have no control of your children?’” as someone who has apparently never been to a wedding or a supermarket, or on a train, commented sourly. Others criticised Kate’s failure to bring along sufficient distraction.
What nonsense. There were Teletubbies and Wombles! And how was she supposed to secrete an iPad in that Strathberry clutch bag? You really weren’t watching, I see. No one seemed to mind, anyway: he was passed from lap to lap, Charles dandled him on his knee, Mike Tindall pulled faces. The whole thing was quite sweet, really.
Well, I like the sound of him. You’re not alone. The internet has declared Louis “a mood” and his greatest hits have been collated into “tag yourself” collages of photographs, where you decide which of his facial expressions best represents you.
So which Prince Louis face are you? The one where he’s pulling on his cheeks so you see the inside of his eyelids, like a tiny Munch’s Scream. It’s been a long jubilee.
Do say: Expressive, energetic and in touch with his feelings, Prince Louis is the future of the monarchy.
Don’t say: With decades of “pageantry” ahead of him, no wonder the kid has a case of resting Windsor face.
