In 1985, under the brush of the father of pop art Andy Warhol, Elizabeth II’s gaze was tinged with blue reflections, while her hair was adorned, like Marilyn Monroe before her, with pink, mauve, purple and indigo. This kaleidoscope of colors, which freezes the smile of the sovereign to infinity in the London souvenir shops, served as a prelude to a pop representation of the powdered face of the queen. Recognizable among all, sometimes dressed in a candy pink dress, sometimes decked out in a lilac, almond green or pale blue overcoat, the queen has been erected as an icon of popular culture, an idol 100 times diverted and yet always admired.
“Good evening, Mr. Bond”
Take animated series. Seen several times in the American series The simpsonsand in particular in an episode during which Homer rams Her Majesty’s coach at Buckingham, Elizabeth II also makes a brief appearance in 2015 in minionsas well as in the children’s cartoon Peppa Pigwhere the monarch can be seen jumping in mud puddles.
The sovereign also appeared in worldview, on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012. She takes part in a short video where she receives at Buckingham Palace, surrounded by her famous corgis, agent 007 camped by Daniel Craig. “Good evening, Mr. Bond”replied the queen, before the duo pretended to get into a helicopter to fly over the English capital and finally parachute into the Olympic stadium.
Exploited and diverted
Similarly, during the celebration of her platinum jubilee last February, for the 70th anniversary of her reign, the queen surprised her subjects by filming a skit during which she has tea with Paddington bear. , an icon of British children’s literature. Before beating time We Will Rock You of Queen with a silver spoon on the porcelain cup, synchronized with the opening of a giant concert in front of Buckingham Palace.
Moreover, the musical world had very early seized the image of the sovereign: represented from 1977 on the cover of the single God Save The Queen of the Sex Pistols, where her eyes and mouth are hidden under the title and name of the group, Elizabeth also inspired artist Jamie Reid, who created a version where the monarch appears with a safety pin on her lip and swastikas instead of pupils. Irresistibly hijacked, she was repeatedly hijacked by the brats of the Saturday Night Live. In the guise of the brilliant Fred Armisen, the Queen goes from bland and benevolent sovereign to libidinous carter with an accent cockney unstoppable.
Finally, when she was not playing herself, the queen was brought to the screen by several actresses, in particular played by Jeanette Charles, in 1988 in Is there a cop to save the queen and in 2016 by Claire Foy then Olivia Colman in the Netflix series The Crown. Her Majesty’s image has continued to be exploited and misused. More recently, on the occasion of his 63 years of reign, the French publicist Guillaume Titus-Carmel, renowned for his photomontages broadcast on social networks, seized the face of the queen, which he mixed with that of Michel Drucker, to question the longevity of the host and that of the sovereign. And if Elizabeth II marked the memories by her seven decades of reign, pop culture also contributed to making her an icon, giving an always modern character to the features of her face.