The Queen has been dead for almost a week now and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I’m kinda surprised just how many people seem to be absolutely devastated by her passing.
Featured Image VIA
I think it’s fine for places to close as a mark of respect and no adverts to be shown on TV or whatever, but some of the stuff that’s going on is insane. Center Parcs saying they were going to kick guests out on Monday for her funeral was the start, but the fact that people are literally willing to queue for something like 30 hours without any food to see a box that her dead body is allegedly residing in is another level entirely.
At the time of writing, the queue is currently two and a half hours long and you’re not allowed to take a sleeping bag or camping gear and can’t leave unless you’re going to the toilet or getting a drink. You just have to stand there shuffling along for a day or so until you finally get to shuffle past a box and pay your respects for about 30 seconds. Who in their right mind wants to spend their time doing that?
Just to put things into perspective, here’s a live tracker of how long The Queue is, a video of The Queue from yesterday which really drives home just how long and ridiculous it is, and some guy on Twitter writing a thread explaining how insane the whole situation is way better than I ever could:
Just to be clear: I don’t mean the purpose of the queue. I don’t mean the outpouring of emotion or collective gried or the event at the end and around the queue or the people in the queue. I mean, literally, the queue. The queue itself. It’s like something from Douglas Adams.
— ❓🦎 (@curiousiguana) September 14, 2022
It is a queue that goes right through the entirety of London. It has toilets and water points and websites just for The Queue.
You cannot leave The Queue. You cannot get into The Queue further down. You cannot hold places in The Queue. There are wristbands for The Queue.
— ❓🦎 (@curiousiguana) September 14, 2022
There is a YouTube channel, Twitter feed and Instagram page, each giving frequent updates about The Queue. Because the back of The Queue, naturally, keeps moving. To join The Queue requires up to the minute knowledge of where The Queue is now.
— ❓🦎 (@curiousiguana) September 14, 2022
And the end of the queue is a box. You will walk past the box, slowly, but for no more than a minute. Then you will exit into the London drizzle and make your way home.
— ❓🦎 (@curiousiguana) September 14, 2022
Tell me this isn’t the greatest bit of British performance art that has ever happened? I’m giddy with joy. It’s fantastic. We are a deeply, deeply mad people with an absolutely unshakeable need to join a queue. It’s utterly glorious.
— ❓🦎 (@curiousiguana) September 14, 2022
Wow. Good luck to all those queueing even though I can’t understand it myself. Hope it makes you happy and can’t wait to see the viral ‘banter’ moments that we’re sure to see after people inevitably start to go crazy after waiting in a queue for hours and hours. Fingers crossed the weather stays OK for them too.
For more of the same, check out King Charles having some banter with a fan asking him to go for a pint.
