Royal Announcement Parodies

About

Royal Announcement Parodies or Royal Communications Edits refers to a series of memes and parodies made using a picture that appears to have the official letterhead of the British royal family paired with nonsensical or copypasta text, often referencing a meme. The exploitable image format circulated amid growing speculation and uncertainty surrounding the British royal family following the controversy around Kate Middleton's supposed disappearance and rumors of King Charles III's death in early 2024.

Origin

In mid-March 2024, online conversations around the British royal family intensified after Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, went weeks without making a public appearance and official outlets posted a doctored photo of her. Unconfirmed online rumors spread about the BBC receiving instructions to await a "royal announcement" around this time. According to Snopes, these rumors originated on TikTok on March 16th, 2024, with a video by the popapologists duo, who claimed to have gotten the information from an anonymous "insider."^[1]

The popapologists video (seen below) earned over 2.4 million views and 131,000 likes in three days, ending with speculation that Middleton "is no longer with us."^[2]

On March 18th, Russian state media outlet Mash posted a black-and-white photo with the letterhead of the British royal family to Telegram and a sentence-long press statement suggesting that King Charles III had died. Other media outlets reposted the story, but after the British royal family and government denied that Charles III was dead, the Russian state outlets issued retractions.^[3]

Spread

Edited announcements using the Royal letterhead then circulated on X / Twitter on March 18th, 2024, under the trending hashtag "#RoyalAnnouncement." Some of them, like the one (seen below) by X user @ViewFromEssex, which received over 5,200 likes in five hours and referenced the My Pussy In Bio memes from earlier that year, reprised prior formats and copypastas.^[4]

Others, like the one (seen below) by X user @ash____c on March 18th, which received over 21,000 likes in four hours, satirically imagined what the Royal family might say.^[5]

Various Examples

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Search Interest

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External References