After the publication of his explosive memoirs entitled The Spare, Prince Harry has to face a parody publication that uses the codes of his book.
It is a joke announced for April 1. For this date anything but harmless, the publishing house Hachette UK has planned the publication of a parody book mocking The Spare, the explosive (and sometimes laughable) memoirs of Prince Harry. The hijacking of the much-discussed book begins with its title: Spare Us! A Harrody. A double play on words. The first one takes The Spare (the original title of the memoirs) to beg “Spare Us”. The second one is a crossword after Harry’s first name and the word “parody”. The cover of the book uses the portrait of the prince used for his book, but bars his mouth with two pieces of tape.
The first commercial description of the parody book sets the tone: “His life was a constant barrage of press intrusion and manipulation, until he finally asked for it to stop. To get the privacy he craved, he wrote a book about his frozen penis and everything else,” the publisher’s website reads. “A book that explores every yell, every fist fight, every teddy bear, every strange hug and every tearful castle wedding, to fuel the world’s interest.” Parody, then, will be aimed as much at the author as it will be at the readers of The Spare.
Harry and Meghan: parodies galore
If Spare Us! A Harrody, is the first parody to use the format and codes of Prince Harry’s memoirs, he and his wife Meghan Markle are very often the subject of parodies, mainly in recent months and since the release of their Netflix documentary series Meghan & Harry. In February last, the couple was the target of several episodes of the scathing animated series South Park, which Prince Harry was a fan in his youth. The month before, the mockery came from their own town of Montecito, as they were caricatured even in the very local Montecito Journal. By July 2021, the streaming platform HBO Max was releasing The Prince, an animated series that parodies Harry’s lifestyle.
Photos credits: Bestimage