'Harry and Meghan: A Royal Romance' trailer / Lifetime
The British royal family certainly inspires plenty of curiosity — but the things most people want to know about Queen Elizabeth II and company are more than a bit surprising.
OddsMonkey dug into Google search trends to see just what types of questions people are asking about the Windsors, and several of them are bound to raise eyebrows from anyone who hasn't used the same search terms.
Popular searches include "Does the Queen fart?" "Can the royal family play Monopoly?" and even "Does the Queen eat swans?"
Open-ended questions were typed into Google to see which were the most popular suggested auto-completes — and the results aren't entirely what one might expect.
Some were simpler, with people asking if the Queen watches the Netflix series The Crown (she reportedly does), if she has a passport (she doesn't need one, as UK passports are issued in her name), and if she has siblings (she had a younger sister, Princess Margaret, who died in 2002).
They search for whether she drives (she does, but she doesn't need a license — for the same reason she doesn't need a passport) or watches TV (affirmative; she likes Pointless, Antiques Roadshow and Downton Abbey).
But one hilariously popular search asks, "Does the Queen fart?"
In fact, there is a 2016 children's book by Heather Gordon that goes by that name, which could be the basis for the searches — though it's also entirely possible that people are curious about the monarch's flatulence.
The book titled "Does the Queen fart" may have contributed to the popularity of the question being searched. Photo / Amazon
Also, quite oddly, other popular searches ask whether the Queen eats swans, or whether the royal family can eat swans.
Though the question seems to come out of left field, it's inspired by a popular misconception that the Queen owns all the swans in the country, and that only she is allowed to eat them.
According to Smithsonian magazine, this isn't quite true — but it comes from a long history that the royal family has with the bird.
Since medieval times, swans were considered luxury goods in Europe. Not only did nobility own them, but they served them at feasts, especially for Christmas. Henry III reportedly served 40 swans during the holiday in 1247.
In 1482, the crown rules that only people with a certain income could have swans, and thus only the rich — including the monarch — could eat them.
Swans eventually became less popular as food, falling out of fashion in Victorian times. And while the law making it treasonous to own or eat a swan below a certain income was not repealed until 1998, it is still illegal to keep or kill a swan under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Other questions searched of the royal family include whether they can vote (no), marry outside their religion (yes), or take selfies (yes).
People also asked some surprising things about the family, including if they can play Monopoly, eat garlic, or eat seafood. They all may seem like odd questions, since one might assume the answer is yes to all of those — but, in fact, it's more complicated.
While they can eat garlic, the Queen herself does not like it and won't eat it, according to several royal sources who say she doesn't like the taste or smell.
The entire family is also banned from eating shellfish, but only while travelling abroad. This is to minimise the chance of getting any type of infection or food poisoning, according to the BBC.
