Duke of Edinburgh's Gaffes on Par with Bush's

[NJCher]

I think it's a combination of being insensitive combined with a desperate need to be funny.


Duke of Edinburgh gaffes by mocking blind boy
The Duke of Edinburgh, who has a well-earned reputation for putting his foot in his mouth, made yet another gaffe when he mocked the sight of a blind boy.


snip

The family of Stephen Menary, a teenage army cadet who was blinded in an IRA bombing, had been invited to meet the Queen and her husband at a tree planting event in Hyde Park.

After the Queen asked the then 15-year-old how much sight he had left, the Duke of Edinburgh responded: "Not a lot, judging by the tie he's wearing".

snip

A few of his other gaffes (many more at the link):

On another occasion he asked a student who had been trekking in Papua New Guinea: 'You managed not to get eaten, then?"

Speaking to a driving instructor in Oban, Scotland, he asked: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to get them through the test?"

snip

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/6805975/Duke-of-Edinburgh-gaffes-by-mocking-blind-boy.html


Cher