There has—and we mention this mostly for the benefit of those rare few lucky enough to carry a genetic immunity to British Royals Nonsense, since the rest of us have been floating in this one for at least a week at this point—a new kerfuffle in the world of the U.K.’s royal family of late. It’s all centered on Kate Middleton (known, famously, as the sister-in-law of Suits star Meghan Markle), who dropped out of the spotlight for a bit, and then released a family picture to assure the world she wasn’t dead, and then people immediately called that image out as an obvious Photoshop, because the Royals make people act in truly normal ways.
Anyway, we told you that story so we could tell you this one: A pair of YouTube pranksters have apparently taken advantage of our insatiable desire for more info on KatePhotoGate to put one over on guileless child Tucker Carlson, successfully booking online comedian Archie Manners on Carlson’s online show as Middleton’s purported former digital content creator. In a video released by Manners and co-conspirator Josh Pieters, the pair say they forged Kensington Palace documents—including adding a clause that said the palace could amputate one of Manners’ limbs if he failed in his probation period for his alleged job—in order to dupe Carlson and his bookers, and successfully got an invitation to film with him in a London studio. They said they released their own video ahead of the scheduled release of the Carlson video so as not to spread actual disinformation to the host’s 12 million followers.
As viewed in the duo’s video clip, the actual interview is pretty straight, with Manners claiming he was fired after doing a very bad job ’shopping the original photo (i.e., an edit of the actual photo that Pieters altered to include details like a rugby ball and a Christmas tree). (Also, given that this entire thing comes from a pair of guys happily trumpeting their ability to very publicly lie to people, we have to maintain at least a grain of skepticism about parts of its veracity.) Still, it’s a fun reminder that people will buy just about anything if it threatens to reveal yet more weirdness about some of the planet’s weirdest people—especially if those people are guileless child Tucker Carlson, who seems to have been genuinely delighted with how the conversation went.
Carol Dennis is an entertainment aficionado with an eye for all things pop culture. She dives into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry, from movie premieres to music festivals. Carol’s passion for storytelling extends beyond her reporting, as she’s an aspiring screenwriter in her free time.
