About
One is not Amused is an emerging image macro series based on a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II looking disgruntled during her appearance at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony in London, United Kingdom. The phrase “One is Not Amused” is derived from another LOLcat image macro series known as X is Not Amused.
Origin
On July 27th, 2012, Queen Elizabeth II attended the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics at the Olympic Stadium. Her entrance to the event was nothing short of a spectacle and a departure from her public image, featuring a pre-recorded film starring Daniel Craig as James Bond and the Queen herself, followed by a live parachuting performance high above the stadium by a stuntman double. In contrast to her energetic arrival, however, she appeared to be bored or even disgruntled at times, particularly during the procession of nations (shown above, left).
Within the hour, some candid photographs of the dour-faced Queen began circulating across internet news sites and blogs. At around 10 p.m. local time, while the ceremony was still ongoing, Redditor tf2fan submitted an image post titled “The Queen isn’t enjoying the Olympic Ceremony” to /r/AdviceAnimals, featuring a photograph of the scornful looking Queen in the V.I.P section with the caption “Kill them all, Phillip. Kill them all” (shown above, right). Meanwhile, the title “One is Not Amused” had been previously used to describe photos of unhappy looking Queen Elizabeth II in an article published by DailyMail in October 2008.
Spread
The original image gained nearly 250,000 views in the first 24 hours, spawned dozens of variations on Quickmeme and quickly spread across the Tumblr blogosphere after it was picked up by Sherlock fan blog Deduce Me Doctor Watson and reblogged by the British stereotype blog You Know You’re British When. The original Tumblr post gained more than 10,000 notes in the first 24 hours. Other derivatives began to surface on Reddit and Tumblr as well, most notably the one captioned “look at all these countries I used to own,” in allusion to the days of the British colonial empire many centuries ago. The image was posted by Redditor Google_vs_Bing and spread across Tumblr, where it gained more than 100,000 notes in the first 24 hours.
Notable Examples
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External References
Reddit – The Queen isn’t Enjoying the Olympic Ceremony
Tumblr – Kill Them All Phillip, Kill Them All
Tumblr – You Know You’re British When
Reddit – The Queen of England at The Olympics
Tumblr – Look at All These Countries I Used to Own
DailyMail – One is NOT amused! Or how the Queen can’t help revealing her royal displeasure