Last year, we talked about Gary Janetti, the American “comedy writer” who used to be one of the writers on Family Guy. For several years, Janetti was “workshopping” a character on his Instagram, and that character was Prince George of Cambridge “saying” snide, racist, sexist and awful things about his family. Even more specifically, a “Prince George” character saying nasty sh-t about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. HBO and Warner Bros liked what they saw of Janetti’s character and I assume the pitch for the show was a more cleaned-up version than what appeared on his Instagram. They gave him an animated show and Janetti promptly spent days/weeks cleaning up his Instagram and deleting the grossest and most racist posts.
Absolutely no one wanted this mess and I have no idea why HBO Max even went through with it, but here we are. Here’s the trailer for The Prince.
It just looks stupid and bad. It’s not even the Sussex stuff specifically for me, it just looks awful, disjointed and unconnected from reality. Apparently, the Keen Squad is now super-upset that Janetti is “lampooning” the entire royal family and not just Meghan. There’s a lot of “how dare he, the kids are off-limits!” Which is true, but why were they okay with his racism and sexism towards Meghan again?
We really didn't go after Gary Janetti hard enough. How dare HBO reward him for using a child as an instrument to direct racism and hate at a Black woman? How on Earth can this public and heinous act become a show on HBO? pic.twitter.com/k2t3hQSiRA
— Carmen's Granddaughter (@CarmenGranddau1) July 29, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty, HBO Max.
I watched the trailer. I see he also assumed Meghan and Harry would flop in America. It just highlights even more how offbase he is. These things only work when there is a kernel of truth in the lampooning.
Interesting that they just said “apartment” and you heard “flop”. Hate to hear what you think of my home.
Flop by royal family standards.
Being in an apartment is not flopping, Eenie.
But it’s a far call from the mansion they are currently living in. It would have been funnier if George got a postcard from his Uncle and Aunt and they were living in luxury, having a better life than his royal life and George was trying to escape there…
In any case…I don’t think there was one good joke in that entire trailer. I didn’t laugh once! Forget the actors attached to this. Who was in the writer’s room?
@Lemons I’m with you. I didn’t find any of it funny. All I did was roll my eyes.
The sarcastic child has been done to death and much better than what we see here.
Mac. The sarcastic child lead could have been fine, but this execution was horrible.
The animation was terrible. The characterizations were disconnected from any reality. And the direction of plot is off base.
P.s. this feels like a very cheap family guy knock off with the BRF, but worse it feels like the writing in the later seasons of FG. That show was always a bit much, but last several seasons have been very bad.
They had a teensy cottage in Kensington Palace, so that Harry remark makes no sense.
@Isabella Says Frogmore Cottage is a far cry from being Teensy LOL! Have you seen the photos? There are many available online
Oh goodness gracious. Context please. Everyone knows d*** good and well that if H&M had moved into an apartment in the US , it would have been considered a ‘flop’ given Harry’s extremely wealthy background and Meghan’s earning power. That’s what Snuffles was saying. The comment literally had nothing to do with apartments in general or anyone other than Harry and Meghan.
@Sondra I think Isabella was referring to Nottingham Cottage at KP, not Frogmore
Difference in culture maybe but the word flop means fail to me – ie the movie was a flop – rather than a flophouse when used in the context in that sentence about H&M.
He assumed that because of his delusional, pathological misogynoir. And his thousands of sycophantic followers there to tell him how “hilarious” he was (so long as he didn’t comment on Kate). It’s so gross.
It sounded dumb anyway because it was implying Harry didn’t know what an apartment was. Does the guy not realize Kensington is basically a high-level apartment building?
Also, painting Harry as a dunce when he has demonstrated he is far from it.
And that Harry spent 10-years in the army, during which time he also spent lots of time living in tents?
Well, clearly he knows not very much at all. He seems to hate everything and everyone. What a sad little cashew d!cked nobody!!
I didn’t see it like that equality. I saw it as an english/american thing. He called it an apartment because where they all lived in Kensington were apartments, e.g. aren’t the Cambridges in Apartment 1, which is a multi kitchen and bedroom mansion compared to most.
Watch The Windsors on Netflix for a funny royal family parody. I hope they have more seasons.
And with the Windsors you pretty much NEVER see the kids. They’re alluded to (remember when Edward baby sat them lol) but I don’t think we ever actually see George or Charlotte.
They’re enough of a parody IRL. Can barely stand seeing them now, don’t know why anyone would want to see a fiction of them. Even outside the Diana parts the Crown wasn’t doing it for me, more like completing an assignment so familiar with the material.
My god I loved that show. The Camilla character and the two daughters of Andrew were so hilarious.
yes love that show!
L4frimaire, I hear you!! I did find the Windsors funny but lost interest rapidly; I can’t bear to see real life stories on these hateful snakes, what to speak of voluntarily watching a sendup of them….
Geezzz…. I LOVED IT. The issue I have is with Kate’s too proportional torso.
As for the critics, THERE I have a problem… kids are out of boundaries…when tgey’re white and privileged and have royal blood; but the “let’s keep on cleaning our feet all over Meghan’s face because she’s black” can keep on running. Sad.
I thought they were smart enough to read the room and quietly shelve this. Guess I was wrong.
I personally have dozens of screenshots of Gary’s Mugzit obsession. Did HBO decide no press is bad press, because the receipts are going to spill out?
I mean dumping it with less than one days notice is one stop above shelving it.
I guess you are right. Who knows, there may be some kind of lawsuit if it isn’t aired. Anyway if they really dumped all of it, then it will be forgotten by Monday.
Remember a few years ago, HBO was going to give the Game of Throne guys a dystopian show called Confederate that still depicted slavery today with the south having won the civil war, and of course all the slaves were still Black. There was a huge outcry but HBO doubled down and defended it for a while before it was shelved. They also decided not to do a season 2 of Lovecraft Country, even though that show was so good and earned a few Emmy nominations. HBO does not care.
@Gruey I *think* what happened was that it was scheduled to be released earlier, but then Philip died, so they postponed it?
They should have shelved it permanently, it’s trash.
I’ll probably watch it. It doesn’t look great but I like a lampooning of the royals.
Me too! I know I’m in the minority here but I found the trailer funny 😜
So did I. Looks gas.
The queen pulling a gun made me wheeze. But making fun of children is low even for him.
ok thank goodness, cause I laughed too. Prince Louis had me laughing. How does he look exactly like that in real life? lol
Louis cracked me up also. Still wouldn’t watch it, but it’s amusing to see the people who thought he was all that go nuts now.
I liked it. Lolol i think this is probably closer to the truth about the royals than anything.
It seems very similar to a show we had in the UK years ago which would tear into the royals. It’s the same dry/dark humour, satire and sarcasm. Aside from the royalists, I can see this being popular in the UK.
I find it funny seeing people get so worked up about how it’s not an accurate portrayal of whoever their favourite royal is. That’s the whole point. Nobody actually thinks the royals behave like this. It takes the perceived character flaws of each of them and magnifies them to a ridiculous level.
Is that feral loud little kid supposed to be Louis?
Mariah Murray
Oh lord I can’t handle the term “gas” for being good. I understand the origins as I’m in the industry for it, but I will be thankful the day I realize no one uses that term anymore.
L4frimaire, yes that’s Louis!! Actually it cracks me up how he’s portrayed lol :))
So glad it’s not just me. I thought it was great and I want to see the whole thing!
I’m with you on this and it reminded me of The Family Guy.
@Snazzy 100%! I found myself laughing a lot! Plus any show that has Iwan Rheon in, gets a vote for me!
I’m here for Prince TOB being carried away by his valet to go potty.
@Harper that was the ONLY part I laughed at. Overall it was terrible but I have to admit that one scene was funny.
Me too! The bit about Charles was so funny…”coming Mummy”! You KNOW that is how it is! 🙂
And did I see Camilla smash a martini glass? ! HA
William and Kate look awful here, so it’s not all bad.
You’re better off watching Family Guy. This is a budget copy but with way worse animation.
I find it really odd too that he was able to get away using the actual names, it kinda crosses a line to me
I’m mixed in that I think a show that poked fun at the Royal family could be funny BUT
I think this show is wayyyy off the mark and I don’t like that the creator demonstrated clearly racist/appalling behaviour (violence, toilet humour) on social media. Sadly, Familt Guy is popular and was also super offensive and had a lot of awful episodes, so this isn’t surprising that someone who worked on the show is making this. I’m surprised HBO picked this up and not Fox to be honest. HBO needs to come under fire for this.
Hard pass. Even if there are funny parts, I don’t care bc of the creator’s misogynoir on social media. And the fact the he erased his tweets during the George Floyd protests. Hard no. This could be the funniest thing ever and I wouldn’t give a f*ck or watch it.
Hear hear!!!
@JAIS
I don’t disagree with you on the creator BUT I disagree that something poking fun at the Royals def can be funny as F.
People loved Family Guy and so I can see lots of people watching this as many people don’t really follow Twitter or pay attention to stuff like that. I wouldn’t have known about the creator had I not gone to this site. I don’t have FB, Twitter or other social media.
Absolutely people might not know about the creator and will thus watch and find funny. Just saying that, because I do know, it’s a hard pass for me. Obv, the creator wants people to watch and doesn’t want people to know about the tweets because he deleted them. Which is why it’s awesome that people took screen shots and are discussing it here.
I’m not even going to give that trailer clicks. None of us would want an entertainment conglomerate creating a satire of our child, much less making money off of doing it. Idk if he is a future king of whatever, This is NOT ok.
Yeah I can’t believe this is legal.
If someone made a show like *this* about a President’s child. Sasha, Malia, or Barron Trump, everyone would lose their minds! This isn’t cool.
Welcome to the US, where—for better and worse— the freedom of speech is sacrosanct.
This is legal. It’s in bad taste, but it’s legal. Any challenge the RF would make would fail on First Amendment grounds.
I can’t reply to the exact comment that said this (I’m on mobile) but as far as “freedom of speech”…..that only protects you from government interference/punishment for your speech. It does not protect you from consequences of that speech from the general public or your employer.
@Rose
I think we’re saying the same thing. The RF would not win a lawsuit against HBO because HBO is a private entity and as such, are allowed to say anything they want. The general public is free to SAY whatever they want back in reply, but the general public cannot use courts to seek some kind of legal remedy because HBO is not breaking any laws.
I’m not sure what employers have to do with this discussion.
This puts the Cambridges and, frankly, the entire Royal Family in a bad spot. To me, THIS is worth legal action. We just heard all this tough talk about how never complain, never explain is out the door. Now a major network is lampooning your brand, using your actual names, and using your actual child’s image and identity to say racist shit. Really feels like a bridge way too far.
Prince George is a public figure so HBO legal would know the boundaries and work within them. The window for palace outrage was back when Janetti first monetized George’s image and signed the contracts with Hollywood. Since the palace was strangely silent for years, complaining now would raise questions as to what took them so long, and bring even more attention to the show. Their best bet for George’s sake is to let it flop quietly. I’m going to check it out to see how bad it really is, or not.
Agree with Harper. Also, HBO is a US company, the RF doesn’t have the same kind of power it’s used to having wrt the media. Any legal action the RF may attempt to take must be in the US, and they’d be slapped down hard on First Amendment grounds.
I think I read somewhere that Janetti claimed that he had been told by someone reputable that the Palace (KP) enjoyed his insta where he used George to bash Meghan. If that is true, then that would explain KP’s curious silence.
Hi, AH!
If George was good enough to be used to blast Archie and Meghan then he’s good enough to be made fun of by the same guy.
Not my clown, not my circus.
I wonder if Charles will complain about this like he did when the crown was released? Oh I forgot he only cares about how he and Camilla look.
I don’t know what the legalities are with film and tv shows portraying real life people without their consent. But even if it was completely legal (it obviously must be), there’s the morality of it all. George is 8 years old, how will he feel hearing about this? It’s just wrong, he’s a child ffs.
They could have easily made a fictitious royal cartoon comedy that could have been just as funny.
Yeah, after their reaction to season 4 of The Crown, I’m curious as to how they’ll respond to this.
Back in the 90’s we had a show called 2DTV which mocked the royals and politicians, including Tony Blair & George Bush in a very similar fashion. Just looking at the trailer for this, it looks like a bit of a rip off of that.
Clearly I’m a long way from the intended fanbase for this but I also just don’t see humour in that trailer. I get that we all laugh at different things but this isn’t funny… before we even get to the offensiveness of this guy and what he’s trying to do here. I’m quite shocked at the names involved and judging them hard.
Royalists were fine with Janetti even though his insta fatshamed Charlotte & was mean about Camilla’s looks- because the main target of Janetti’s ‘satire’ was Meghan. His Insta was followed by many royal reporters.
The show was probably going to still focus on Meghan if she hadn’t stepped back. Plus blatant misogynoir would have been problematic for HBO after George Floyd protests. So now it looks like other royals are the main targets royalists are upset.
I think HBO knows it’s got a flop on its hands hence dropping trailer just day before it streams. I haven’t watched the trailer properly but think it’s disgusting to use a real minor child this way. Im embarrassed for all involved. I’ll be surprised if it gets a second season
A smart mouth child saying ‘piss’? No thanks. It’s not funny and it’s been done a million times.
HBO should have been smarter and lampooned the insane rr.
Lampooning all the royal reporters aka ‘rota rats!’ You are definitely onto something @Lizzie. There’s so much freakin’ satirical material to be had pokin’ fun at the carnival crew and their thirsty, bald-faced lies, including screeching obsessively smarmy Wooter, Dusty Cabinets Arbiter and his Diva Dahling grifter daughter, Cameltoe Meanie Tominey, Katie ‘Slick-Spin’ Nicholl, Jobba the Hut Jobson, Ingrid Ignoble Sewer, Chris ‘The Shit’ Ship, Sleazy WTF Larcombe, Russell ‘I’m so Earnest – NOT’ Myers, Lazy Conniving Colin, Penny ‘No One Wants Your Thoughts’ Junebug, Angela ‘The Insane Devil’ Levin (who actually said on a talk show that her mother used to call her, ‘the Devil’ — a great example of a royal rota rat telling on theirself), et al.
I’m sure Celebitches can come up with a great synopsis and first script for an hilarious spoof/ sendup/ royal roast of the rota rats. And those ‘incandescent with rage’ coining grey men must be lampooned too, along with the entire KP crew, led by Jason ‘Nasty Smear-gasbord’ Knauf, his co-hort Christian ‘I Ain’t’ Jonesy, and raging, ill-tempered Willileaks!
As far as Gary A’hole Janetti’s animated grifting of a child, based on his worse Instagram depictions, where he went way too far — Hard Pass. The effete voiceover for George in this mess, sounds purely awful and just not on the mark at all. Maybe because there just isn’t a well-meaning bullseye in any of Janetti’s mean-spirited poor taste (which some of it, honestly on his Instagram, e.g., the Camilla posts, and even some of George poking fun at Kate, Carole, TOB, Philip DoE, and Carole Midd on occasion, would pull out guffaws from me. But they were always the kind of laughs I knew were cruel, so not funny actually).
The repetitive stuff against Meghan crossed the line. And a very cruel post when M&H departed Salty Isle was just dumb AF. I stopped going to Janetti’s site after that. The best satire has to hold a grain of truth. But if you are just repetitively mean, it gets old, tired, noxiously offensive and obvious.
Kayleigh from Pajiba points out that HBOMax putting the show on its platform with very little promo means they’ve dumped it. I guess they had to fulfill their contract with Janetti. For the Kate stans to be crying about this now when they were cheering it on when it was bashing Meghan is the height of hypocrisy.
I agree with Kayleigh.
The fact that HBO quietly released info about this 12 hours before it premieres and with no additional promo or publicity suggests they aren’t really backing it but also don’t want to completely shelve it (because that would mean throwing money down the drain).
All the fuss the various royal fandoms are making about it is what is drawing attention to it and is what might make people want to watch it… Which, I assume, is the opposite of what they want to happen.
In a clickbait economy where people/companies are only interested in views, people really need to think more strategically about how they engage with things because they might inadvertently be drawing attention to something that otherwise might have been ignored.
Yeah, I think its clear that HBO is trying to bury this as much as possible, I wonder what kind of viewership it will get, my guess is not that much.
HBO dropped the trailer and the show with one days notice, maybe they put too much into it to shelve but aren’t gonna develop it more than the current season.
His Instagram used to be funny just because of Prince George’s expressions. It was funny and cute. Then they got more mean spirited and it was uncomfortable..
I hadn’t seen the completely unhinged ones until now…
it was LOL Funny when he was using George to attack Meghan but now George is under attack and we’re supposed to march on HBO Studios?
No, this is Hard Boiled and Scrambled’s problem. It’s above us now.
Emmitt, what did this 8 year old child do to you personally that you think they are “fair game” to be mocked and parodied by adults? It’s gross. I don’t care what you think of the adults in the royal family, their children shouldn’t be lampooned. Its a little kid. He didn’t pick his parents or his family.
No one is saying it’s ok to be using George that way and many of us have said that using George to make sexist or racist comments about Meghan was gross for years now. You can search my own comments saying Janetti was gross for doing this. But it was ignored because haters found it cute that Meghan was being insulted. And since the IG account was so popular by the people who hated Meghan, Janetti was able to tell HBO he would have a large audience and hence he got this show. So now that it looks even worse than the IG posts, the derangers are complaining. But they helped create this beast because of their blind hatred of Meghan. So this is on them.
@Nic919. Exactly. They are being hoisted by their own petard. I’m sure they would be okay with it if M & H were the only ones being made fun of. The use of George then and now in this way isn’t okay. As you and others have said..the blame goes to the people that made Janetti popular.
@Nic919, I was responding to an earlier comment where Emmitt literally said it was okay.
“If George was good enough to be used to blast Archie and Meghan then he’s good enough to be made fun of by the same guy.”
Yeah, that’s not cool.
I would like to trade this in for another season of The Windsors plz
Oh yes. That is hilarious.
I LOVE the Windsors. And that is a show that knew how to read the room – when they first introduced Meghan she was portrayed as this trashy ditzy actress, and by the third season they had pivoted and made her more zen, more California-esque (like lots of smoothies etc lol) and it worked because it was still a caricature, but there was a definite shift. I also love that they made Harry more fit and healthy and completely switched actors for him (the original harry went on to star in Belgravia.)
Their portrayal of of Charles is A+++. Also love how they do Anne even though it’s far fetched
I LOVE Camilla and her Dynasty style brawl each season.
Also, go back over the early seasons, and see how they actually PREDICTED everything that Meghan and Harry would do…it is SO funny to watch because they got it right, and yes, they did a full turn on Meghan and they were more into dissing TOB and Keen than anyone…deservedly so!
Same here. They show has a West End play now running from August
I mean, this is what royalists wanted, right? They were laughing along and piling on the abuse and hate against Meghan. Well, enjoy it. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. They helped create this environment with their racism and hatred. They loved Gary when Meghan was the target. I hope they enjoy their aryan faves being mocked.
He was also fatshaming Charlotte at a similar time yet the royalists had no problem with that but now since he’s shifted focus on that it’s “kids are off limits”. Which I do agree /personally/ with but it’s clearly not “ALL kids are off limits” with them.
I’m going to ignore this just like the Cambridges have ignored the racism towards Archie and Lili. His parents and their fans can defend him and Charlotte.
I’m genuinely surprised the Cambridges haven’t sent their lawyers after this. They probably didn’t care about the Sussex bashing but Gary was using their son to fatshame their daughter. I don’t understand how or why W&K would be okay with that. I’m not parent shaming or whatever just genuinely surprised since they’re not afraid to send lawyers over things they deem mean/offensive/upsetting.
Anyways, there’s an audience for basically everything including hate watching so I’m sure there will be people who watch and may even enjoy it. I’m not one of them.
Probably because Janetti’s lawyers could point out they had no problems with the use of the Prince George character when Janetti was using the Prince George character to go after Meghan.
Yeah you’re probably right. I want to also say that they should have gone after him from the very beginning (because he wasn’t JUST picking on Meghan) but doing so now will raise questions of WHY now so that’s probably why they’ve stayed away.
Cambridge lawyers have much more sway in UK media than at HBO. Also Cambridge lawyers have likely told them they don’t have a leg to stand on.
IIRC, the IG account started before Meghan, right? or just after she came on? And at first it was focused on all the royals equally and it was kind of funny. Then it started to hyperfocus on Meghan (I guess because he got more comments that way?) and the racism and sexism just went through the roof. But you could tell the new people who only started following him after the Meghan attacks ramped up because when he would put up a post mocking Kate or whoever, the responses would be things like “not fair, only Meghan is allowed, leave Kate alone” and that just emphasized the racism of the royal fans. You could mock the black duchess, not the white one.
Anyway I have no real interest in watching this. If someone else does and says that its funny and not as anti Meghan as the IG was, then I might watch an episode, but otherwise, meh.
It did start prior to Meghan dating Harry and it was more of a George mocking the adult royals, which started its appeal, but I agree it then focused on attacking Meghan so a certain hater crowd found it funny and he got enough attention to get the HBO deal.
I am stunned that Will and Kate are okay with this! They were positively outraged at the suggestion that Kate got Botox or hair extensions and got their lawyers involved but the lampooning of their young son in front of the world doesn’t bother them?! How are they going to explain to George that they failed to protect him when they have no problem protecting themselves?! I really feel for George, kids can be so vicious and he’s going to get teased and laughed at by his schoolmates.
I find the entire premise of this show so utterly gross. George is an actual person – any child, royal or not, should not be exploited like this by some random person and a multi-million dollar corporation. Because of his parents and his future role George is in some respects a public person but he is also a small child – and I find it strange that HBO and Janetti can actually do this when they don’t have consent from George’s parents. But I guess they can because I doubt HBO would have bought this project if there was any risk of legal liability. It is just utterly tasteless. Leave those children out of it – he could have used another royal to lampoon the rest of them, like a gin-soaked Camilla or a no-nonsense Anne. Or even better – a much put upon royal staffer who is much smarter than his/her dumb bosses (like a royal version of Jeeves and Wooster or Yes Minister).
I’d probably still be bad because if you can’t write jokes with out resorting to sexism and racism, then you aren’t funny.
Here’s the thing. There was SO MUCH whining and correcting about the Crown. It was loud. Yet about this, which is actually predatory and exploitative toward a defenseless child, we hear NOTHING. Honestly if this were my kid I would be briefing on the record about how fucking disgusting this is. Fight for your child ffs!! But no, not what they care about. The silence is so strange to me.
There’s nothing William and Kate can do about it. They can’t control the American media.
While that is true, they also didn’t say a word when it was just on Instagram. As I said before they have no problem complaining when things they don’t like are written about them but their silence on this smacks of complacency. At the very, very least they could have let it be known that they find this disgusting and potentially harmful to their young son but nope they can’t be bothered.
@Harla
I think they are all between the rock and the hard place – so what could they say? KP can stand the issue that they object and then they’ll get another shitstorm about defending George and not defending Archie. Whatever they say now – everything is against them.
@UnionSnack, better everything is against them then sitting back and allowing this to happen to their son, they are both moral cowards.
They can at least speak out in defense of their child. It’s not pointless. Children need to see their parents fight for them. George will learn about this one day. They need to issue a statement condemning it even if it will “do” nothing. It’s their CHILD ffs!
Am I reading wrong ? The premier is today yes? So all of the fist shaking outrage that they aren’t protecting their child seems a bit … premature?
Other than a strongly worded statement I can’t think of a damn thing they can do about it though. It is poor taste, we shall see if it’s actually funny enough to sell.
@Same but it was a very popular IG account for years before this.
I don’t think that this is a matter of W&K “not protecting” their child and am surprised at all the handwringing over that, but if there is zero reaction from the palace to this show then all I can say is that I don’t want to hear a PEEP when the next season of the Crown airs, considering all the whining Charles did over that this past fall.
Right? If they don’t at least try to get this shut down, then it proves that they can’t sink any lower. They were all the more fine with it when George was being used to drag Meghan left, right and centre and to racially abuse her. But this has just blown out of proportion.
They better not mentioned Archie.
They won’t mention Archie. He and Lili are private persons. H&M wisely have kept them out of the public eye. Meghan knows how the game is played and she is protecting her little ones.
HBO would have a shit storm on their hands before you can say boo. Not to mention the lawsuit and bad publicity that would follow.
@layla I completely agree. If this were my child everyone involved in this would have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of their lives
The thought that crossed my mind was that Willie and keen would probably be way more concerned about how their own characters were going to be portrayed, rather than the kids.
The portrayal of the children would essentially be entirely fictitious, whilst the adult characters will be based on exaggerated versions of their real selfs, just like The Windsor’s.
I mean he is basically trying to recreate Family Guy but substitute Prince George for Stewie and the royal family for the Family Guy family. Family Guy is mildly entertaining at best but never made me laugh. I see this as more of the same. I did crack a smile at the Prince Harry character marveling at the apartment and comparing it to “lots of tiny palaces in each room” or whatever the line was. I won’t be watching because I find it creepy to exploit a child this way and the creator’s problematic posts about Meghan.
If you truly want a funny show spoofing the BRF, I can’t recommend The Windsors enough. The actresses who play Beatrice and Eugenie are so hilarious and I LOL each time the Fergie actress comes on screen with her faux raspy “Hello girls” every time she sees her daughters. Camilla is great as is William. It’s so far from reality and what’s ironic is the show introduced the storyline of Meghan and Harry moving to the US before that was a reality, it was just supposed to be a funny storyline at first. The show is on Netflix, you’re in for a good time. They do the whole “Pippa is a maneater gold digger” and “Harry is a dim but loveable doofus” and have those characters date for a bit (the show premiered before Meghan and Harry got together but it eventually includes Meghan too). Here’s a scene from The Windsors featuring Eugenie, Beatrice, and Fergie to cleanse your palate of this awfulness: https://youtu.be/M07dbv0Xkt0
I did not find the clip on Beatrice and Eugenie funny at all. It just seemed mean and the humour puerile.
Slightly OT, but there is a comic floating around starring Bobby Hill, from King of the Hill as a therapist. His clients are a couple, Bart Simpson and Chris, the kid from Family Guy. Chris talks about his parents abusing Meg so much, that eventually Chris just joined in, like the rest of his family. He tells Bobby, ‘the day she turned 18, Meg walked out the door and they never heard from her again.’ Bart grew up terrified that one day Homer would stop choking Bart and start taking it out on Lisa and Maggie. He made sure to put himself in Homer’s way to protect his sisters. After his clients leave, Bobby calls his dad and says, dad, I just kind of wanted to thank you for being a really great dad, one of the best.
B&E wearing fascinators in every scene! LOL
I don’t know why, because Family Guy was never funny. Purile, juvenile humor never is, except for teenage boys.
I don’t find smart mouth kids funny. They usually just parroting what their parents say behind closed doors.
Really smart kids are usually not mouthy because they are so far ahead of their peers. They are thinking about other things that their peers don’t even think about. Example, my neighbor’s kid, probably genius level, reading at two, chess player by 5, wanted the image of a black hole on his 6th birthday cake.
True, Beatrice and Eugenie are brilliantly portrayed in The Windsors, as is Fergie…I love the actress who plays Fergie!! And yes, I wrote above, they PREDICTED EVERYTHING M&H would do, it is hilarious to watch it now…
This is distasteful for the adults but truly disgusting to be doing this to a child. I absolutely despite the Cambridges but their poor children are not “material” and this is repulsive.
And it goes without saying his material on Meghan was repulsive. I unfollowed every account on Instagram that followed him, including several celebrities.
If you’re going to have the audacity to be this disrespectful to a child, at least be funny or subversive. This just seems stupid.
The series The Windsor on channel 4 comedy (also on netflix) is funnier because they perfectly illustrate the absurdity of the monarchy and the faults of its members.
I blame Suri’s Burn Book. That felt very ick and so does this. One thing to satirize adults but putting nastiness on real, actual children feels out of bounds.
It is completely out of bounds, NC. Completely gross, and I don’t see how adults can be comfortable creating something like this for television.
If the Cambridges cared they would have tried to shut this down when this racist and misogynist Janetti was using George to racially abuse Meghan, fatshame Charlotte and bully Camilla.
If their fans cared they would have unfollowed Janetti and condemned him. They didn’t.
They can eat their hypocrisy while an innocent 8 year old is now used to disparrage, abuse and bully everyone else. This is their fault.
This makes the entire RF look bad.
I truly do not understand this guy’s obsession with Prince George. Can someone explain it? I don’t find Janetti funny anyway, but aside from that I don’t understand this.
The Instagram account that this show is based on has always creeped me out. It is so goddamn weird that this adult man uses a real little boy as an avatar for his royal snark. Just use one of the Queen’s corgis or something, not an actual child.
Anyways, this show looks like trash. It’s not like I’m morally opposed to dunking on the RF or anything (it’s one of my favourite pastimes), but the execution isn’t funny. When will animated comedy writers get it through their skulls that having a little kid being snarky isn’t the comedy goldmine that they seem to think it is?
His obsession with that kid is truly bizarre.
Gary Janetti is a racist and a misogynist. His white rage filled hatred towards Meghans position in the royal family was evident. The reason HBO gave him a series is because, sorry guys, Hollywood is still full of racist misogynist who want to bring down women and especially women of colour. Where they end up winning is because we all need to stop engaging in all ot nothing thinking. We say to ourselves “I laughed at that, this is funny. But I’m not a racist or a misogynist so this CANT be racist or misogynist” so we put our blinders back on and either act like we don’t know it’s racist and misogynist or get defensive towards anyone who dares question something we enjoy out of shame. Two things can be true at the same time. You can laugh at something AND that something can be misogynistic and racist. Just because you laughed at the trailer, does not make this show okay. Once again rude and racist are different. Janetti and all the Hollywood elite who have his back, will keep being rewarded with shows if we don’t stop thinking in an all or nothing way. There are plenty of funny shows that can bring laughter and joy that don’t try to take down black women.
His follower count on IG also played a role in getting the show because it was popular and so HBO determined there was an audience out there for this. So all the derangers who thought following janetti on IG was hilarious because he trashed Meghan are directly a reason why this show got green lit.
Yessssssss. Preach!!!!
Looks like Family Guy to me.
A popular show I have rarely found funny.
I like my comedy smart, quick witted.
This looks cheap and trashy. Hard Pass.
Btw, Alan Cumming is involved is this? How? Why?
Totally agree.
I was wondering the same thing. How did Alan Cumming get roped into this??
Also I recognize the voice but didn’t click until the credits, having Orlando Bloom as Prince Harry is kinda brilliant casting but wish it wasn’t for this trash project.
Already Harry is getting blamed for this show because he said that he texts Bloom about paparazzi locations. The derangers are so desperate to blame anyone for this show except their own enabling actions that made this guy’s IG very popular.
This is gross to me. George is a small child. There are limits.
This is…not good. Supporting racist tropes, making fun of children who have zero say in their lives’ direction. Cheap, all the way around.
Interesting there was no prior promotion or publicity for this show Janetti was able to get this show because so many thought it was “ cute” when he was using George to insult and denigrate Meghan. Then he had to scrub his site of the most blatantly sexist and racists posts against her, and he went back to calling Camilla horse face and his fans seemed upset he wasn’t insulting Meghan anymore. The show looks stupid, not my style animation but honestly, this is what the haters wanted. He can’t turn it into a racist hate fest so of course he’ll insult the whole family. Eventually he’ll try to turn up the racism and Meghan hate again, especially if the ratings tank. Trash.
When Janetti’s began using Prince George’s image as a means to spew racist, sexist, misogynistic barbs at Meghan would have been the perfect opportunity for the palace to speak out about this. Maybe legally nothing could have been done but they could have made a point about the offensive, inappropriate nature of it. But they didn’t because Meghan was the target. The only reason they are mad now is because he scrubbed all of the hateful stuff directed toward Meghan. Remember they made excuses for not cleaning up their own IG accounts on the grounds that the royals were public figures. But then closed comments for Andrew and Camilla. And they clearly block any critical Cambridge comments on KP. This is the essence of reaping what you sow. It will be difficult for them to say anything now because the obvious question will be why did they tolerate the stuff on IG that was a hundred times worse than this. I’d also like to point out that the Sussex Squad was critical Janetti from the start. And not just because of Meghan. Many pointed out how inappropriate it was to use George’s likeness in this way. The Royalist/Monarchist/Cambridge Stans were silent. Also, Janetti’s didn’t start scrubbing his IG until after the George Floyd/BLM protest in the summer when people started paying more attention to how toxic it was. When the show was announced he did tone down the toxicity but it was still awful.
Well, I didn’t click on it but I can’t deny the cartoon depictions of Charles and William are both hilariously spot-on.
I do find Family Guy fairly entertaining, in doses, but I won’t watch this because dragging a little kid into it is not OK. I will watch a clip or two, I guess, and I might laugh, but I don’t support it. The Cambridges should do what they can to shut it down, even if it doesn’t work. The point is to try and to fight for your kids.
So I got curious and look at Janetti’s Instagram. Other than clips about the show, he hasn’t posted a George post since Feb. That combined with the fact that HBO posted the trailer 12 hours before launch and hasn’t done much to promote it fuels the idea that perhaps Janetti/HBO have been told to knock it off hence the lack of posts and promo for the show. Cause otherwise he would continue with the George posts on his Instagram at least.
Edit: I suppose you could argue that he stopped so people would watch the show instead but I did a dive again and he announced the show in April 2020 and it’s July 2021. In that time, he’s posted a maximum of 6 clips including the trailer about it. 5 clips and a trailer in 15 months doesn’t seem a lot but I also don’t work in media so I might be talking nonsense
IDK, but someone above said he did a LOT of cleaning up of his IG acct.
Both this site and Pajiba called him out on his nastiness and how he was scrubbing the worst of his Meghan insults. I remember people loving his vile racist posts about Meghan, but them getting mad if he said something about the other royal women. He then had the Caucasity to post something about BLM, but conveniently turned off the comments, further pissing off his racist troll army. The main reason the royalists are upset is because he can’t troll Meghan unreservedly . Seriously, f*ck that dude.
He knows that shit about Meghan won’t fly in the US.
Oh he’s definitely done a clean up (which has been noticed) and he cooled on the Meghan posts. His last Sussex post in any capacity was May 2020 but again, he’s done a cleanup of posts he posted before that.
My guess is after the Oprah interview and Megan revealing to the world she was suicidal probably nixed this show and its racist/sexist humor. HBO probably felt they had to honor the deal but I wouldn’t be surprised if this show got yanked from streaming. Janetti will be crucified for any Meghan jokes he makes and those were the ones that got a lot of engagement on Instagram. It’s just as well because using Prince George this way is disgusting and vile.
Whoa. There are some real names in there. Sophie Turner. Alan Cumming.
REALLY disappointed at Alan Cumming; then again, he’s done as much voiceover work in his life as he has acting…he’s got a huge backlist of voicing in his history. So I don’t know, maybe it was just a job…I’m baffled at Orlando Bloom too. WTF, people…?!
I guess I’m the only one who’s okay with this? I missed the previous controversy, but I didn’t see anything racist in the trailer. Just some royals being taken down a peg which… yeah, go for it. Doesn’t look like my kind of humor, personally, but I don’t see anything ethically wrong with this. Skewer those in power. Make fun of the monarchy. Please! I don’t see this being something I’ll watch though.
I’m ok with it @tealily. I saw the first 2 episodes. C’mon, it’s a parody. Have we lost our sense of humor? It’s a takedown on the inanity, futility, over-privileged Royals who live on the sweat of others. I had a laugh at Episode 1 when William said “Thank God she left” about Kate during the investiture. I guess the writers know a thing or two about these two stooges.
Well, you said it yourselves: “I missed the previous controversy.” That means you missed the entire point of this whole thing….
My understanding from the post is that that was something that was put out before the show? Is that right?
Episode 1 is on HBO right now. A senile Prince Phillip blubbering at the table? Oh my God. That alone is beyond the pale. Even if he hadn’t died. Some of the jokes are funny. Kate and William can never get enough ridicule
All of the episodes are on HBO. They are not releasing them weekly so I guess that says they think it’s a bomb. I watched the first episode and agree with you. Not funny. Everybody says the F word, I think that’s been done to death. The ONLY thing I found amusing was Louis and his deep voice because it’s so random.
I honestly think this is pretty low humor and pro-establishment. He does mock the snootiness and entitlement of the royals but he doesn’t go after their enduring colonialism, hiding money, hoarding of pillaged treasures, or claiming exemption from laws supporting the environment or against racism. He doesn’t even touch the rape and murder of indigenous children, too busy lightly mocking white children of privilege. The palace doesn’t care and the conservative power base doesn’t care because this kind of satire is ultimately toothless. No one is going to be up in arms that the royals have servants or are out of touch. George being coded gay or presented as a bully on a niche foreign show that will never have a large viewer base isn’t going to affect the monarchy. They don’t care because it’s toothless.
And we notice Andrew is conveniently nowhere to be seen.
Well said, Amanda. There’s no satire of anything truly worth criticizing in the royal family. Turning a blind eye is not satire. He ain’t no Jonathan swift. He’s a sexist racist comedian that makes superficial jokes with no teeth. As you say, toothless.
What happened to the tv show the Royals? That was fun. Just enough truth to be funny, not enough to be weird.
Orlando Bloom, the helpful neighbour, is voicing Harry!!!
Interesting that Orlando Bloom is playing Harry – didn’t you have a piece a while ago about how he and Harry were neighbors and bonded over the paparazzi on their street?
Harry said that in the Dax Shepherd podcast.
I love it.
HBO cleaned up the Meghan crap most likely out of fear from the NAACP and other civil rights group coming for it. There is a risk of financial blowback in the US.
Unfortunately, I don’t think HBO did it out of consideration for civil rights. I think HBO cleaned it up because H&M are fast emerging as power players who also have a lot of powerful (and wealthy) individuals and companies backing them. H&M have already done projects with Apple+, Disney; they have the Netflix and Spotify deals; they’re friends with Oprah and their interview was nominated for an Emmy. They are international superstars who have the Midas touch. From a business perspective, you do NOT want to burn any bridges with H&M and their brand; bashing Meghan would have closed the door permanently.
Additionally, Meghan has become a racism litmus test. Right now, bashing Meghan is essentially a declaration that you’re racist. HBO already has a problematic reputation, but it’s not quite on the level of, for example, Fox News. But supporting, creating, promoting a show dedicated to insulting Meghan? They would cross that line into Fox News territory, generate a lot of negative press, get a lot of scrutiny, suddenly find a lot of people cancelling their HBO Max subscriptions, etc. I think it was a purely business decision.
Huh, I’ve seen Family Guy, but I haven’t paid any attention to this project or his IG, so the trailer is new to me. I think it’s interesting to imagine the RF from the children’s POV, but this clip seems a boring, dated retread. Besides, I don’t think anyone can satirize the RF family better than they can themselves in real life. Charles fleeing to the hinterlands every time Harry’s name is mentioned, William causing diplomatic disasters whenever he’s not skulking in the rosebushes, Kate in her fake office with her fake books and ridiculous pie charts, royal “experts” flapping around the courtiers and looking for crumbs. This stuff writes itself.
Nah. The only way this works, really works, is going hard. I know I know, shoot me. But you can’t adult animate this type of shit without dropping some mouths. And nobody is off limits. I just saw a six week old unglazed donut hole.
What I find maddening/so sexist and so disrespectful towards Harry is that in any kind of parody or satire or comedy, he is reduced to a dummy and/or weak man easily influenced by Meghan. When he is in fact smarter, more practical, more in touch with the real world and has more of a backbone than most of his family members. No wonder he can’t stop talking/telling his story/sharing his perspective. I’m sure it must bother him on some level to be portrayed in this way in the media (never mind all the bashing his wife gets). This man is going to go on to build an incredible legacy and all the naysayers will have to eat their hats one day.
I can’t think of another instance in which someone so intelligent and capable was constantly stereotyped as an incompetent airhead. I mean, Marilyn Monroe was far more intelligent and well-read and thoughtful than people gave her credit for, but she also was as needy and as vulnerable as everyone suspected. Harry, though, is pretty much the exact opposite of his stereotype, as you say @Lulu: “smarter, more practical, more in touch with the real world and has more of a backbone than most of his family members.” I would say: than ALL of his family members. I do think the Queen, Prince Philip, and Charles are/were capable in their own arenas, but Harry’s Diana-like compassion, empathy, and emotional intelligence — plus his courageous decision to free himself from the constraints of a royal — make it possible for him to have positive impact in far more areas than those people. Harry truly is an impressive and gifted role model on many fronts, and has already shown for many years that he is an extremely hard worker and a creative organizational leader. Archewell and all his business partners are very lucky to have him. Our (the U.S.’s, the world’s!) gain is literally the BRF’s loss.
It’s maddening, but not unexpected. Pretty much any satire of British upper classes shows them as clueless buffoons. You’ll find strong intelligent princes mostly in the pages of Regency romances and even then they have to be tempered by the love of a good woman, preferably from a lower class so we can see how egalitarian he is. Tropes die hard.
I don’t think the royals need any more publicity. Royalty is outdated as an institution and founded on poor morals. No thanks.
Family Guy is misogynistic garbage. so this is unsurprising. may it flop and may Janetti slide into obscurity with a quickness.
It would have been better if Spitting Images were rebooted. No one asked for this.
I have never paid attention to him because I make a point of not giving these bastards clicks, but after reading some of his tweets and insta posts mentioned on here, I hope he effing flames out like a human Hindenburg.
He doesn’t even have the guts to voice his own crap, hiding behind a child. Even worse his obsession with the sexuality of a prepubescent child. He is vile.
And these so-called celebrities caping for him. I see they still haven’t learnt their lesson from the MeToo movement. It’s still all giggles and shits.
It’s derivative- simply Royal Stewie Griffin.
I was surprised to see the voice cast: Dan Stevens, Sophie Turner, Orlando Bloom, Alan Cumming. No one with designs on a future OBE, MBE I’m guessing.
Alan Cumming received an OBE in 2003. I’m not surprised he’s doing this. He likes doing voice work and isn’t opposed to mocking royals. He’s also not a fan of the British Press.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jan/24/alan-cumming-dare
Janetti was/is complete slime and any/all pejorative words for his Meghan comments. I’ll admit I did lol at the part when William was carried off to the bathroom.
Comment to correct that AC’s OBE was in 2009 not 2003.
Can the Royal Family even condemn this though? Considering it’s a US production, they probably don’t see a point speaking about it. Unlike The Crown which was almost entirely a British production streamed on Netflix.
I watched the complete first season of The Prince this afternoon (the episodes are only 13 minutes long). I have to admit that it grew on me. Each of the characters has a character arc, the plot becomes more involved and moves along with references to previous episodes, layers of personalities are pealed back, and the season ends on a cliff hanger. Like all parodies there are many sharp digs, but softer sides of the characters are slowly revealed. I’m actually hoping for a Season 2.
So, as someone who doesn’t/didn’t watch the cartoon shows like Family Guy or South Park, I invested watching 6 episodes of this. It really wasn’t that engaging though I gave it a good chance. I was more curious how they would portray Meghan. It is funny to me how they portrayed Harry considering how effing successful he’s been since leaving. I think they were mocking the British Press stories considering how the Netflix deal came out September of 2020. The Prince Philip stuff was uncomfortable. Yet, for the past several years a lot of us have mentioned he’s looked like death. Charlotte, Meghan and Louis come out the best.imo And, Owen the butler. The last episode really wasn’t a cliffhanger…it was kind of silly. While watching it, I imposed it being William as a child and not George. Which made it a little funny to me especially with his “friends” eye rolling. One of my favorite lines came from Kate’s character and it was something like (to William) that there wasn’t enough alcohol in the world to make him tolerable.
I think the cartoon images of Prince Charles and Prince William are dead-on. The portrayals I love are those of Kate and William and their relationship. I think they are probably very close to true. All I can say to the royal family is they can dish it out, but they can’t take it. Complaining about taking aim at an 8 year old ( and who can really believe it’s even meant to be a real lampoon?), when they themselves went after a pregnant black woman (until she was suicidal) and her two babies (when they were in utero and beyond). The royals have always liked blood sports, but only when they had a huge, unfair advantage and it was others (whole countries during colonialism) left bleeding, robbed or dead.