King Charles III Cracks Jokes and Wins Over Congress

U.S.|This Time, the King’s Speech Was Full of Jokes

King Charles III worked the House chamber like a stand-up comedian in a joint meeting of Congress in Washington on Tuesday, cracking jokes and winning over his audience in a strained time in American-British relations.

The king’s speech received standing ovations and laughter across both sides of the aisle as he wielded his British humor like the most genial of scepters.

“This is a city which symbolizes a period in our shared history, or what Charles Dickens might have called ‘A Tale of Two Georges,’” he said, pausing as a wave of laughter rolled through the chamber. “The first president, George Washington, and my five-times great-grandfather, King George III,” he continued.

“Please rest assured I am not here as part of some cunning rear-guard action,” he added. Cue more chuckles.

Charles also made a lighthearted reference to the “tradition” in Westminster of taking a member of Parliament “hostage” at Buckingham Palace when a king addresses the assembly, asking Speaker Mike Johnson whether there were “any volunteers for that role here today.” (The custom is rooted in the 1600s, under Charles I, when the relationship between Parliament and the monarchy was particularly fraught. That Charles was beheaded at the end of a civil war.)

There were some gibes about the extraordinary length of British history. Charles noted that the American colonies declared independence “250 years ago, or as we say in the United Kingdom, just the other day,” adding a pause and smiling at the jubilant response.