Prince's costume shows royal lack of respect

The Misanthrope by Ethan Chatagnier

There will be no goose-stepping around this one for Prince Harry. The British royal, now under heavy fire for sporting a swastika at a costume party, has shot himself to the top of the worst-costumes-ever list.

In an age where you can order a human-sized penis costume over the Internet, I’d begun to fear that the borders of bad taste could not be pushed any farther. Luckily, the easy detachment of royalty from real life is always around to surprise us.

For those without the level of refinement that it takes to come up with playing Nazi as a party trick, I’ve got a tip: Just find a center of suffering and run with it. You can be the cause or the victim—it works either way.

Famous assassins and recent widows will do the trick. Also, impoverished refugees will have the crowds rolling. AIDS victims. Hate-crime victims.

This is, after all, black comedy. We make light of tragedy for the sake of amusement.

What makes this poor stab at humor even more despicable is the position of its perpetrator.

Don’t fail to take into account that the theme of the party was “colonial and native.”

One can only wonder if the other wealthy, titled attendants wore costumes depicting the horrors of colonialism.

Who came dressed as forced laborers in South America, or as slaves in the Congo? Was suppression of native religions and customs a party game?

Even at a party making light of a terrible institution, Prince Harry was able to stand out as a pinnacle of bad taste. That speaks volumes.

Perhaps it’s time that we all stop making jokes about tragedies that don’t belong to us.

Though at times it’s important to laugh at what should make us sad, at a certain point it just becomes cruel.

So if you ever find yourself inspired to play dress up as a Nazi, a serial killer, or a slave-owner, don’t.

Some things just aren’t funny.