Things I Found on Mr. Gore's Good Internet: What Happened at the Mountbatten Festival of Music? The Curious Case of the Stolen Ovation (Part 1)

Mountbatten Festival of Music 2020

Alright folks, strap in, strap up, batten the hatches, secure the storm shutters, and affix the tinfoil hats firmly to your heads because I'm about to make some highly irregular claims.

But bear with me anyway.

Namely, I think Harry has already been sacked from his Captain General of the Royal Marines post. I think it happened at the Mountbatten Festival of Music (MFM) 2020. And I think they sacked him in a very public albeit coded way. It happened right under our very noses and the great majority of us didn't have a clue.

I started looking into the goings on at the MFM because of the Believing Bruce body language video embedded below. Commenters on his channel were claiming that the standing ovation Harry and Meghan received was actually meant for the orchestra, which had just finished the overture when they entered. This fit into some rumors I was investigating at the time that the gruesome twosome might be surreptitiously recording footage of royal events to use in a Netflix documentary. Stealing performers' applause in order to get a "standing ovation" shot for their doc? Very on-brand for these entitled twerps.

A commenter pointed out the reaction of the short dude on Harry's right/viewer's left, which seemed to confirm that something was indeed very off with the whole evening. So I tracked down the original video (Standing Ovation for Prince Harry and Meghan as they Complete Last Few Engagements) and started watching reactions one by one. Yep. Somethin' ain't clean in the milk and every last person on that balcony knew it.

This guy reminds me of Popeye

Poor Popeye looks devastated

Harry's last true friend?

Oozing that inimitable English quality of polite savagery

Pashmina Lady can't believe her eyes

But she likes what she's seeing

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good

Astounded

Ole dude's eyebrows are just about flying off his forehead

i am so uncomfortable

Yiiiiiiiiikes

Good sirs I remain skeptical

However, I was given pause by the fact that this video is clearly titled Standing Ovation for the Harkles and appears on The Royal Family Channel, which is a verified channel and not a stan account. A quick glance at their Wikipedia page reveals that they are owned by ITV, which is a huge establishment player in British media. Surely a bunch of establishment insiders knew the real scoop; why would they facilitate the gruesome twosome's outrageous and false self-promotion?

The clincher for me was none other than Meghan herself. Watch the video from 0:55 to 1:50 and focus exclusively on Meghan's reaction. She is first surprised, then delighted by the audience's applause. Meghan is absolutely pleased as punch. This is not the sly narc smirk of a rude schemer thieving other people's accolades; this is the ecstatic smile of a woman finally being lauded in the manner to which she always felt entitled.

A simpering fool and her dignity are soon parted

And yet... All the pressed-lip, tight-smiled, bulgy-eyed expressions on the balcony tell a very different story. So what the heck is really going on? Are the Harkles being standing-ovated or no? Since the video of the full concert was uploaded to Youtube, might we find some answers there?

As it turns out, the answer to that last question is a resounding YES.

The video of the concert has two audience shots during the standing O, one at 3:34 and the second at 3:38. In the second shot the orchestra is clearly visible behind the audience. The audience have their backs turned to the orchestra, and are applauding towards the back of Royal Albert Hall where Harry and Meghan are seated. That is probative. The standing ovation was not for the orchestra, it was very intentionally for Hazza and LaMarkle.

The audience, clapping, with their backs to the orchestra. Not the orchestra's ovation.

But equally obviously, this is not an authentic, heartfelt, laudatory applause. And it's not just the tense expressions on the balcony that lead me to believe that. If anything, the expressions in those audience shots are even more extraordinary. There are a lot of mirthless smiles in that crowd, beginning on the lips but failing to reach the eyes. And most curiously of all, some of those audience smiles appear to be openly mocking.