Twitter Users Had Fun Heckling Prince Harry For Suggesting ‘Fortnite’ Be Banned

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Prince Harry — Duke of Sussex, sixth in line for the British throne, and husband of nine-months-pregnant Meghan Markle of Suits and marrying-a-freaking-prince fame — caused a bit of a kerfuffle on Wednesday while visiting a YMCA in West London to discuss the effects of social media and violent video games on children with a group of mental health experts. He seemed to desire a ban on the game Fortnite, currently the world’s most popular free-to-play game. Some of his choicest quotes during the event were rounded up by The Daily Express and published Thursday:

“The game [Fortnite] shouldn’t be allowed. […] Where is the benefit of having it in your household? […] It’s created to addict, an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible. […] Parents have got their hands up — they don’t know what to do about it. […] It’s like waiting for the damage to be done.”

Not everyone was chuffed about Fortnite being insulted. Jokers on Twitter quickly hit upon the most obvious opening volley:

https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/1113858531504152577
https://twitter.com/ckolderup/status/1113845844707405824

People also took note of Prince Harry and Meghan breaking a Guinness World Record on Tuesday for reaching one million Instagram followers in the shortest time (5 hours and 45 minutes) after launching their SussexRoyal account. Somebody already had the account by that name (and he’s not happy about losing it), so even that detail was brought up:

https://twitter.com/djfoster08/status/1114153806898528256
https://twitter.com/GameStarterMan/status/1113887345584025601
https://twitter.com/TomatoGodBoi/status/1113943699459837952

Others went in more unique directions for their commentary, with critics even pointing out the recent Oxford University study which found no link between teenagers’ video game use and violent behavior, though it should be noted the Prince never claimed the game causes violence:

https://twitter.com/NukeNacho/status/1113897987481194506

And some critics of the monarchy cut right to the quick.

https://twitter.com/Botty_Cello/status/1113893413731041280

Even Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip flipping a Land Rover became fodder for jokes:

Oh well. At least there’s definitely nothing worse than social media and video game addiction plaguing England right now:

(Via The Daily Express, BBC [1, 2], VG24/7, SyFy, and Twitter)