As told by Prince George
+ READ ARTICLECoverage of the British Royal Family often veers into breathless accounts of royal weddings or adulations toward tiny princes and princesses, but that’s hardly the case when it comes to Gary Janetti‘s Instagram, an account who millions follow for a refreshingly wry take on life at Kensington Palace as imagined from the perspective of a cynical Prince George, who turns six years old today.
Janetti, a writer and producer known for his work on Family Guy and Will and Grace, takes headlines and photos of the expressive young royal and his family and pairs them with pithy quips, to hilarious results. The sassy captions hold true to the old adage that “brevity is soul of wit,” with Janetti’s Prince George persona dealing in succinct but savage burns to everyone in the Royal Family, from Prince George’s younger siblings Charlotte and Louis to his favorite long-suffering target, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Janetti’s Instagram account shot to viral fame in 2018, where he offered some serious comic relief to the media frenzy surrounding Markle’s nuptials to Prince Harry. Since then, Janetti’s Instagram following has swelled to 800k followers, some of whom you might call royalty of another kind: celebrities and influencers like Real Housewife of Beverly Hills Lisa Rinna, who’s a frequent commenter on his posts (longtime fans look forward to her go-to rejoinder of “Gary.” in the comments) — so much so that she’s made appearances of her own on the account.
For influencer mogul Tina Craig of Bag Snob, Janetti’s account provides daily entertainment about her favorite member of the British Royal Family.
“It’s like watching a sitcom, in nano-internet time. I wait for each new post the way I did with Seinfeld episodes in the ’90s,” she told TIME. “If you think about it, he’s posting the same photos over and over, yet with his quick-witted captions, the same expressions tell very different and hilarious tales.”
Janetti’s good friend, celebrity hair stylist Scotty Cunha agrees with Craig — Janetti’s storytelling has given Prince George a new kind of depth and humor.
“Gary is so funny and smart and I feel like he has given George a voice that we are all dying to hear,” he said. ” I am a huge fan of the royals and I really hope Prince George has the same humor that Gary has given him.”
Prince George’s spicy online persona via Janetti can be snarky, but Janetti insists that the jest is all in good fun.
“It’s all meant with affection,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2018 interview, where he noted that he’s a fan of Markle. “It’s fun. Even though he says horrible things, it’s done in a way that’s meant to be so ridiculous that you couldn’t possibly take it seriously. I’ve given him these Shakespearean ambitions and thoughts to use this forum to tell that story. I think of him as a character in any series.”