It's not often you watch the birth of a viral meme live on TV, and far more rare for it to be one that features Her Majesty the Queen. But that's exactly what happened on ITV on Sunday night (May 15) as The Queen sat watching the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebrations live from Windsor Gardens.
It was a star-studded event featuring a mix of celebrities from Martin Clunes to Tom Cruise and of course, a great many horses (more than 500) which the Queen appeared to prefer. But it was during one particularly gushing speech from Alan Titchmarsh that the Queen delivered the best moment of the night.
Alan said: "There's been one constant heartbeat of this nation, and that heart belongs to to Her Majesty the Queen." Applause erupted from the crowd and the camera cut to the Queen for her reaction. She simply did a shrug and a little shake of the head. And that was all it took for Twitter to erupt with happiness.
One said: "LOL the Queen like "yeah, that's me, heartbeat of the UK and what?". While another said: "That shrug needs to be a meme, now." Another commented: "I like to think that she was thinking 'well...he's not wrong there!'"
More priceless reaction from The Queen came when comedian Omid Djahili made a quip that she had made the right choice coming to this event over the State Opening of Parliament earlier in the week. He was of course referring to Her Majesty pulling out of the latter ceremony to preserve her health. And The Queen raised a hand comically and gave a quick gesture that implied she agreed she'd come to the right commitment.
Elsewhere, viewers were critical of the TV event complaining about the advert breaks and editing. Those who tuned into the special broadcast were left frustrated after noticing several mistakes.
