# Why are Americans (and other foreign types) fascinated by the British Royal Family? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 10, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399 "2005-02-10T15:18:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlbertHosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AlbertHosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlbertHosteen)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/21 "2005-02-10T21:05:17Z")
Quite possibly most Americans them don’t care about the Royal Family, but when they’re in the UK, or talking to someone from there, they might give the impression of being more interested than they really are. They’re making smalltalk with a Brit and they’re stuck for topics, ‘so what do you think about [the most recent Royal family scandal]?’ is an easy filler. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/22 "2005-02-10T21:33:02Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > I don’t really understand the fascination with the royals. Other then the whole pageantry and fairy tale thing. > Marc It is those things, and also just the strangeness and exoticness of the whole thing. Even the way these people use their names is completely foreign to us; the Peerage shares in this aspect. ---
**Author:** ![jeffh3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/34f0e0/32.png) [@jeffh3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jeffh3000)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/23 "2005-02-10T21:40:58Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > Are you interested in other countries royals like the scandiwegian bicycling ones or the gun-toting Nepalese variety? Wow sounds like you know more about other royal families than most americans do about the british royal family. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/24 "2005-02-11T01:53:54Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > We take it as read that Americans (and many other foreigners) are, for reasons best known to themselves, fascinated by our Royal Family. I think you take it incorrectly, at least as far as Americans go. Beyond the fact that no one I know talks about or shows any interest in the Royals, I can cite my informal Tabloid Survey (information gleaned from waiting in supermarket checkout lines). Basic grist for our tabloid mill is movie and TV celeb doings (who’s getting fat, becoming anorexic, sleeping around, marrying, divorcing, using drugs, dying of some exotic disease etc.), incredible cancer cures, conspiracy theories, Nostradamus, the latest lowdown on O.J. and so on. It is seldom that there is much on British royal bozos. Though they try their damndest to attract attention, what with parading around in Nazi regalia, seeking alternate identities as women’s undies as well as more pedestrian stuff like endlessly promoting diet plans. When you’ve got Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson, who needs Prince Wannabe? Incidentally, you are using the term “foreigner” incorrectly. That applies solely to _non-Americans_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/25 "2005-02-11T02:58:24Z")
We can’t help ourselves. They’re so shiny. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/26 "2005-02-11T03:50:05Z")
I am an American and I have no interest at all in the royal family. In fact, I would not be distressed if I never heard another word about any member of the British royal family, living or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/27 "2005-02-11T04:13:22Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > So what is the fascination with the British Royal Family? Is it the pageantry and the whole archaic nature of the institutions? The soap opera of their lives? Jealousy? Something else? Not really jealousy, although I can see how one might get that impression. I think the thing about Americans and the royals is that we are curious about them because they’re an exotic kind of thing we don’t have around here…but we’re also happy it’s you and not us that gets stuck with them. > [@](#): > > _Are you interested in other countries royals like the scandiwegian bicycling ones or the gun-toting Nepalese variety?_ American interest in the British royal family is not really very great, and interest in other contemporary royals is virtually nonexistant. The US has a much closer relationship with the UK than most other countries, so the British royal family is more important to us than other royal families. The minimal language barrier also makes it relatively easy to keep up with what they’re doing. I doubt the average American could name any living members of any other country’s royal family, or correctly identify all the countries that still have royal families. Even with the Windsors I don’t think your Average American Joe or Jane could do better than Elizabeth, Charles, Diana, William, and _maybe_ Harry. There are a fair few Americans with an interest in _historic_ royal families, especially those that met a horrible fate. Romanov enthusiasts and the like. But again, this seems to be mostly interest of the “how fascinating…and how fortunate that it happened somewhere else!” variety. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/28 "2005-02-11T05:59:17Z")
> [@](#): > > I think the thing about Americans and the royals is that we are curious about them because they’re an exotic kind of thing we don’t have around here…but we’re also happy it’s you and not us that gets stuck with them. I think we like a little tradition and pomp and circumstance, as long as it’s not something we have to live with ourselves! I don’t know how much things like the televising of Diana’s funeral here in the US reflects real interest in the British royals. Yes, lots of people watched it–even I took a short look–but really, how often do you see people in odd outfits parading down a street to enter an enormous cathedral? It’s exotic to us, but I doubt that large numbers would have paid to see it on Pay-Per-View. Worth a quick look out of curiosity, but how many of us would actually make some sort of effort to get a look at a royal? If you Brits got rid of the royal family, I think we’d be a bit sad to see the demise of something so long-lived and traditional and all, but OTOH we’d get over it pretty fast (give us, oh, a week), and lots of people either wouldn’t care at all or would think that it’s a good thing really, even though they were quaint and picturesque. I kind of doubt that the tourist trade would suffer very much, and not at all in the long run. I agree that most Americans probably can’t name more than a few royals. I probably know more than most about the UK and its workings, but I can’t really tell you how people like Anne and Andrew fit in–they’re on the sidelines somewhere, right? And what’s Fergie’s real name again? I do know who the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire are, though. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/29 "2005-02-11T07:13:18Z")
In My Humble Opinion, there is not a debate anywhere around here. I’m tempted to move this to **Cafe Society** for the celebrity aspect, but I guess it’s more of a poll, so it’s off to **IMHO**. [/Moderator Mode] ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/30 "2005-02-11T08:19:32Z")
> [@SentientMeat](#): > > I suspect that the eccenticity and quirkiness which makes the British popular innovators might be seen as encapsulated by this rather odd family of Greek-Germans who, with ever so much politeness and diginity, bumble along in their all-too-human lives while providing a dash of pomp and colour which grey-suited politicians, and even glamorous movie/music/sports stars, just can’t manage. > > Sure, they’re a little silly, but they’re just so _nice_: A rose-tinted view of the British reputation abroad, perhaps. At least, the view which foreign people _want_ to have of the British, since the drunken, chav-centric _reality_ they may have experienced is so unpleasant. Nice? Which ones in particular? Good ol’ racist, bigoted Prince Philip? Prince “Dressing as an officer of the Third Reich is a jolly wheeze” Harry? Or the pheasant-strangling Queen herself? ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/31 "2005-02-11T10:01:53Z")
I’m interested because they are also my countries Royal family. I thought Diana was an idiot…it was a “longer she was there the more idiot she became” kinda thing. I have a weird liking of Charley. He wants to be Camilla’s tampon! That is the kinda love that no one else understands. I have an absolute REVULSION to my country becoming a republic. Presidents are messy and far too much effort, not too mention wasting a vote on a figure head! Long may she reign…and then him after her. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/32 "2005-02-11T13:56:07Z")
I couldn’t tell you, really, what’s at the origin of my monarch fixation, except to say that we queens must stick together. I guess I can excuse my interest in Liz & Co as a matter of civic interest (being Canadian), and for the Spanish ones as a matter of historical importance and admiration (1981 and all that). For the rest of them, I think it’s the hats. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/33 "2005-02-11T13:57:29Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > We take it as read that Americans (and many other foreigners) are, for reasons best known to themselves, fascinated by our Royal Family. Indeed it is a reason that is always trotted out for continuing with the royals. But why is this? The British “continue with the royals” because foreigners are fascinated with them? Just out of curiosity, has it been shown that tourism revenue traceable to this source makes up for the taxes Brits pay to support the lifestyles and properties of the royal family? I mean, even the minute percentage of Americans who are truly keen on royal doings would likely balk if they had to fork over tax money to support them. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/34 "2005-02-11T14:00:09Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Just out of curiosity, has it been shown that tourism revenue traceable to this source makes up for the taxes Brits pay to support the lifestyles and properties of the royal family? Actually, the revenue from Crown properties, which has been turned over to the British state since 1760, exceeds the Civil List (the money used to keep the royal households and fund their state duties) by more than an order of magnitude. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/35 "2005-02-11T14:01:19Z")
Cite: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil\_List](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_List) ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/36 "2005-02-11T14:06:34Z")
I wouldn’t use the word “quaint” but I might use the word “archaic.” I don’t have a load of interest in the royal family per se as I do with the concept thereof. I find the idea of hereditary privilege weird. I do think Philip is something else, though. I can’t WAIT to hear what idiocy is going to fall out of his face next. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/37 "2005-02-11T14:09:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The British “continue with the royals” because foreigners are fascinated with them? > > Just out of curiosity, has it been shown that tourism revenue traceable to this source makes up for the taxes Brits pay to support the lifestyles and properties of the royal family? > > I mean, even the minute percentage of Americans who are truly keen on royal doings would likely balk if they had to fork over tax money to support them. No we continue with them because it works for us. However there are people who would like to get rid of them (mainly hairy legged women and concave shinned men with wispy beards) and whenever we have the “should we become a republic?” arguement the revenue from tourism thing is always raised. It’s impossible to quantify if it’s true or not as the only time we’ve tried a comparison America was just a few huts clinging to the shoreline. (The plague shortly afterwards skewed the results somewhat as well, and burning London down didn’t help much either). What is certainly true is that when visitors are asked about things they want to see when here the Royal stuff comes high up the list. Whether they would come in any case is, of course unknown, after all they go to France. Also we don’t “fork out” for the royals, it’s the other way around. The income from their estates goes to the Treasury out of which they are paid an allowance - the “Civil List”. This allowance is WAY less than the income recieved from the estates. They’re also considerably cheaper than a President. They also look better in a stagecoach. We could of course just seize the estates and make them live in council houses - but that would be a bit two-bob wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/38 "2005-02-11T14:14:01Z")
**owlstretchingtime** don’t you _ever_ call the Bushes “America’s royal family” again. I damn near threw up my muffin and coffee. I’m hoping that in 2008 the Bushes fade back into the stink hole they orginated in. I’d even like to see it happen sooner (remember the Curse of all years ending in “0”). I think the Kennedys are (or were) our royal family. They still can’t stay out of the news. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/39 "2005-02-11T14:17:19Z")
It makes me laugh that a country with Kennedy’s (who are popular why exactly - No really why are a bunch of losers like that popular? Is it cos they keep dying?) and who’s head of state could well go: Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton think they’re classless. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399/40 "2005-02-11T15:53:08Z")
> [@](#): > > It makes me laugh that a country with Kennedy’s (who are popular why exactly - No really why are a bunch of losers like that popular? Is it cos they keep dying?) and who’s head of state could well go: Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton think they’re classless. Because even though we have classes in the US, they aren’t really important to us. In Britain, people go nuts over class; in America, they go nuts over race; in Canada, they go nuts over language; in Ireland, they go nuts over religion. Everybody’s got a button. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-americans-and-other-foreign-types-fascinated-by-the-british-royal-family/289399.md?page=3)