How Queen Elizabeth Unexpectedly Became A TikTok Star

Royal videos have been creating a sensation on TikTok lately. Users of the platform have been delighted by Prince William and Catherine Middleton's partying past, and some are feeling nostalgic over the brotherly bond between William and Prince Harry on William's wedding day. Now it's Queen Elizabeth's turn.

The monarch's sense of humor has made the rounds on other parts of the internet, such as a YouTube montage featuring hilarious quips and moments. Two scenes include Elizabeth's humorous approach to aging, when she greets a minister of Parliament by saying "I'm still alive," when he asks, "Are you well?" The other includes the opening remarks of a speech in which the queen jokingly says, "Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister of Canada, for making me feel so old." Another part of the montage features Elizabeth's interaction with Daniel Craig during the famous James Bond parody shot for the 2012 London Olympics.

"A defining characteristic is that she doesn't take herself too seriously," Sir Anthony Seldon, an author and historian, told the BBC. "It's significantly contributed to the success of her reign." Elizabeth's sense of humor was on display again in a TikTok video clip that recently went viral, and it's got royal fans on the platform expressing their appreciation for the monarch.

TikTok user brittoker posted a clip of Queen Elizabeth chatting with broadcaster Alastair Bruce about the Imperial State Crown. After Bruce requests the crown to be moved closer to the monarch, a pair of white-gloved hands handles the priceless object. Immediately, Elizabeth picks up this British Crown Jewel with her bare hands and plunks it down closer. "This is what I do when I wear it," she says, beaming. She then rotates the crown so she can view the Black Prince's ruby.

Liked over 200,000 times, viewers were charmed by the queen's playful reaction. "She looked like a kid grabbing a bowl of candy there," wrote one user. "'MINE!'"

"Wow! She's actually funny," commented another. "The way she just man handles the thing like it's a party hat." As the queen, Elizabeth is one of three individuals permitted to touch the crown. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Crown Jeweler are the only others, per CNN.

The clip comes from a 2018 BBC documentary commemorating the 65th anniversary of the monarch's coronation. "She was very practical with the Crown Jewels in a way I wasn't quite expecting," Bruce recalled after the interview, per The Telegraph. Speaking about the moment featured in this TikTok clip, Bruce commented, "She said 'well, you know, it's my crown.'" The queen has worn this crown numerous times over the years, including her 1953 coronation, and until 2017, annually to open Parliament, per Newsweek.

During her interview with Alastair Bruce in the 2018 BBC documentary, Queen Elizabeth revealed that the Imperial State Crown had been modified for her. When her father, George VI, wore it, the crown was a bit taller. For Elizabeth, the crown was shortened slightly, producing a "smaller, more feminine object," per The Telegraph.

As for the fit, the queen said in the documentary, "Fortunately my father and I have about the same sort of shaped head. But once you put it on it stays. I mean it just remains on." However, Elizabeth did note that she had to be cautious when wearing the crown. "You can't look down to read the speech you have to take the speech up," she told Bruce. "Because if you did your neck would break, it would fall off," she added with humor.

Speaking of falling, in Queen Victoria's time, the Imperial State Crown was badly damaged when it fell off its cushion while the Duke of Argyll was carrying it by the opening of Parliament in 1845. According to Victoria, it was "all crushed and squashed, looking like a pudding that had sat down," per the Tower of London. Although that crown was repaired, it was replaced by the current Imperial State Crown in 1937 for George VI's coronation (via Vogue U.K.).

With 2,868 diamonds, the 12-inch Imperial State Crown weighs 2.5 pounds, per Express. Starting in 2019, the crown attended the opening of Parliament on a velvet cushion after being deemed too heavy for then-93 year-old Queen Elizabeth to wear, per Tatler.

According to the Tower of London, the crown also includes 269 pearls. Four pearls occupy a prominent position at the top of the crown under the arches, and two of these have a special historic significance. In the 2018 BBC documentary, the monarch shared that these were supposed to be Queen Elizabeth I's earrings. "But they're not very happy now," the queen told Alastair Bruce, per The Telegraph. "The trouble is that pearls are sort of live things, and ... they need warming."

Pearls are one of Elizabeth's favorite types of jewelry to wear. While the queen is no longer wearing the pearls on the Imperial State Crown, she's rarely spotted without a necklace of pearls. Besides being a look frequently associated with queens, pearls are also a family tradition. When she was a child, the monarch received two individual pearls as a gift from her father every birthday, per People.