Prince Charles with his margarine tub ukuele

Prince Charles looks badass wielding this margarine tub ukulele. (Via Ukulelia)

REUTERS/Andrew Lloyd

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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bmcraec

In the unlikely event that Dr Who regenerations start getting old again, he’d probably do quite well.
Jonathan Badger

Given that the Ukelele is Hawaiian, and Hawaii was briefly occupied by the British in the 1840s, is this a sign of renewed British colonial aspirations in the region?
zantony

I hope to see him in the next Mr.B, the Gentleman Rhymer video. http://youtu.be/6t28COxEp2k
pidg

banjolele*
Kimmo

Perhaps old Buggerlugs has been reading Ben Elton’s Chart Throb?
pmocek

What a strange facial expression that is. Is he smiling or crying? It looks a bit like the forced smile of someone trying to hold his eyes open while looking into bright light.
- Anonymous
  
  That’s his “Spike Milligan” face.
- facetedjewel
  
  ‘What a strange facial expression that is. Is he smiling or crying?’
  
  I’m going to go with…’self-deprecating’.
holycowboy

Mark – I think, back on the schoolyard, when you were learning how to curse, someone lied to you about the meaning of “badass”. PROTIP: if it involves Ukeleles or British Royalty, you’re probably looking for another word.
musicman

I’m as big a republican (in the anti monarch sense, not the lunatic right/conservative sense) as the next person, but as one of Charles’ subjects (waves from Australia) there are simply far to few opportunities to put “Prince Charles” and “badass” in the same sentence. I am pleased that you have found one of them, and it’s times like this that I think “If I’m going to be ruled by anyone that’s not me, well, a badass is a good option…”
HighVis

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
IamInnocent

there are simply far to few opportunities to put “Prince Charles” and “badass” in the same sentence.

If one gets into the trade of kissing up to the rich and famous, one can certify how bad their asses tastes.
PaulR

He MUST be Glaswegian. I can tell by how close together his eyes are.

I know this because a fella from Stirling, I’ll call him Jimmy, told me that Glaswegians talk funny and their eyes are close together.

Check, and check!
MrJM

“Prince Charles looks badass wielding this margarine tub ukulele.”

I think you’ve got a punctuation typo — shouldn’t it be: Prince Charles looks bad. Ass wielding this margarine tub ukulele.
- oasisob1
  
  +however many points it takes to win. That’s priceless!
Anonymous

That’s the facial expression that signifies “badass”ery?
Pope Epopt

Background cultural infilling:

Colonials may wish to wait for the fine ukulele break in the this fine piece of British smut. Well – it was the height of smut at the time!

Fill him full of enough vintage cognac and I’m sure Crown Prince Wingnut would do an impression.
- pidg
  
  I hate to break it to you, but George Formby played a bajolele, not a uke.
Anonymous

The Duke of Uke!!!!!!
mudpup

You’d think a man of his heritage he could at least score a cigar box version. I mean even a cardboard King Edward box would sound better.
MonsterMan

I’ll stick with my Makala Dolphin uke, thank you very much.
Dave H

I dunno about badass.

He looks kinda like one of those caricature puppets from that “Spitting Images” TV program.
xian

I Can’t Believe That’s Not Rubber.
Anonymous

Camilla to Charles: “Rock out with your cock out!”
akputney

Uke is nicely Maked!
Brett Myers

He has remarkably fat hands for such a trim guy.
Anonymous

He’s my favourite royal (if I have to have one) by a long shot. He has a lot of the same bad qualities that permeate the british monarchy, but he does do a lot of good charity work. Not like Diana’s ‘get me in the paper’ charity work, real charity work.
Rich Keller

“You’re about to witness the extent of my cricket knowledge…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSflRlHPay4
blueelm

Ok. I’m from the US and I’m a republican (little ‘r’) mostly because I really can not even understand why some one would want a hereditary monarchy to begin with if given the option, but his expression is so pathetically cute that I think it qualifies at twee. He looks like one of those paintings of big-eyed kids with broken arms from the 70s.
sean

If he wore a bowler hat he could have had a career on the English stage 95 years ago.
sean

My daughter was just asking me the other day what exactly it was that Kings and Queens did in England.