Comparative lèse majesté

On BBC’s topical quiz program, “Have I Got News for You,” panelists are occasionally asked to attach captions to pictures of famous people in funny situations. Once they showed a photo of Prince Charles sort of sniffing his index finger. The comedian Paul Merton immediately suggested that the speech bubble should read “Ohhh Camilla!!!”

It was funny and outrageous. And I was really surprised that English people would say such crude things in public about their royal family. The English have a very complex relationship to their superiors. It’s a classically feudal form of submission — they are bowing deeply while silently farting.

In Thailand a very similar photo is one of the most popular public depictions of their monarch, Bhumibol Adulyadej, king Rama VIII. If you look closely you will see that he actually is wiping off a drop of sweat from his nose. The picture is an icon of the king’s ceaseless work for the benefit of the Thai people.

But of course I never saw it that way. My reverence was destroyed by Paul Merton. Bumping into the photo on public buildings when I lived in Bangkok, I immediately thought of the king’s relationship to the royal consort — “Ohhh, Sirikit!!!”