King of the Clangers: Top 20 Prince Philip Gaffes

To mark the 94th birthday of Prince Philip – officially the longest-serving spouse of a reigning British monarch – we've rounded up his most cringeworthy (and hilarious) comments.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. (Ben Stansall/Getty Images)
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. (Ben Stansall/Getty Images)

The beloved king of politically insensitive clangers, Prince Philip, turns 94 today.

His Royal Highness will celebrate privately at Buckingham Palace with his family, and there will be a gun salute to mark the occasion.

The Duke of Edinburgh was born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, on 10 June 1921.

He is the longest-serving spouse of a reigning British monarch and the oldest male member of the royal family. Never one to be overlooked, the outspoken monarch is best known for his controversial comments.

To celebrate Prince Philip's big day, we presents 20 of his best gaffes.

1. Speaking about daughter, Princess Anne, in 1970: “If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, then she isn’t interested.”

2. To a group of children with hearing impairments, standing next to a Caribbean steel band in 1999: “If you’re near that music, it’s no wonder you’re deaf!”

3. 1998: “I don’t think a prostitute is more moral than a wife but they are doing the same thing.”

4. To British student in China, 1986: “If you stay here much longer, you’ll go home with slitty eyes.”

Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit The Great Wall of China on October 14 ,1986 near Peking, China
Queen Elizabeth ll and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visit The Great Wall of China on October 14 ,1986 near Peking, China

5. At a dinner party, 2004: “Bugger the table plan, just give me my dinner!”

6. At an exhibition of primitive Ethiopian art: “It looks like the kind of thing my daughter would bring back from her school art lessons.”

7. To the President of Nigeria, who was wearing national dress: “You look like you’re ready for bed!”

8. To a woman in Kenya, 1984: “You are a woman, aren’t you?”

9. To a female sea cadet, 2009: “Do you work in a strip club?”

10. On getting rich in Britain, 1969: "What about Tom Jones? He’s made a million and he’s a bloody awful singer.”

11. To a Scottish driving instructor, 1995: “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?”

12. While touring a factory near Edinburgh in 2002, he said a fuse box was so crude it “looked as though it had been put in by an Indian”. He later backtracked and said: “I meant to say cowboy, not Indian.”

13. To a 13-year-old whilst visiting a space shuttle: “Well, you’ll never fly in it, you’re too fat to be an astronaut.”

Prince Philip meets astronauts at the NASA Goddard Space Center 
Prince Philip meets astronauts at the NASA Goddard Space Center 

14. On a visit to Australia with the Queen, speaking to Aborigines, 2002: “Do you still throw spears at each other?”

 

15. On London traffic, 2002: “The problem with London is the tourists. They cause the congestion. If we could just stop the tourism, we could stop the congestion.”

16. To a girl who had visited an orphanage, at Duke of Edinburgh Awards ceremony in 2010: “Oh, yes there’s lots of orphanages in Romania - they must breed them.”

17. To the multi-ethnic Britain’s Got Talent winners, Diversity, in 2009: “Are you all one family?”

Diversity
Diversity

18. To a tourist in Budapest, 1993: “You can’t have been here long, you haven’t got a pot belly.”

19. To a female solicitor, 1987: “I thought it was against the law for a woman to solicit.”

20. A wheelchair-bound nursing home resident, 2002: “Do people trip over you?”