Prince Harry shocked viewers when he immediately appeared on “The Late Present with Stephen Colbert” and threw himself right into a holiday-movie skit that shortly took an ungainly flip.

His jokes about Donald Trump, the “No Kings” protests, and even his personal royal historical past sparked gasps, laughter, and loud boos from the group.

What was meant to be a humorous Christmas sketch slowly was a chaotic mixture of political jokes, Hallmark-movie humor, and sudden rigidity, all whereas Meghan Markle stayed noticeably out of sight.

Prince Harry’s look on “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert” started with a shock pop-up behind Stephen Colbert because the host joked about tacky Christmas films.

The viewers gasped earlier than cheering because the Duke of Sussex wandered onto the stage pretending to be misplaced whereas in search of an audition for a movie referred to as “Gingerbread Christmas Prince saves Christmas in Nebraska.”

From there, the jokes got here quick, and never all landed. Whereas itemizing his “expertise” for the Hallmark position, Prince Harry joked, “I can trip a horse, I can fly a helicopter, I can trip a horse in a helicopter!”

The room laughed, however the temper modified when he shifted to political humor.

Harry teased Colbert about America’s love of royalty earlier than dropping the road that induced the group to boo. “Actually? I heard you elected a king,” he joked.

The boos rolled by the studio as Colbert laughed, and Harry continued with extra references, together with a dig at King George III.

When Colbert referred to as the late monarch “a jerk,” Harry shot again, saying, “Let it go.”

Because the sketch continued, Prince Harry leaned deeper into awkward humor.

He joked that he would do something to land the Hallmark position, even itemizing showbiz duties and sliding in a line about CBS’s expensive authorized battle with Trump.

“I’ll document a self-tape, I’ll fly myself to an audition, settle a baseless lawsuit with the White Home,” Harry mentioned, referencing the community’s settlement with Trump.

Colbert shortly replied, “I didn’t try this,” making the second much more tense.

Harry then added one other sudden jab. “Perhaps that’s why you had been canceled,” he mentioned.

This time, the viewers applauded, clearly entertained by the daring shade at Colbert’s community.

The 41-year-old additionally poked enjoyable at American vacation traditions as he tried to show he might match the Hallmark Christmas world, resulting in a collection of dry jokes about jumpers, crackers, and Manhattan being a “quaint little village.”

The humor was meant to be playful, however viewers later admitted on-line that most of the jokes felt painfully stiff.

Regardless of the rocky humor, the skit pushed ahead with a full Hallmark-style setup.

Synthetic snow fell as Harry acted out a dramatic, overly sentimental Christmas scene with Colbert.

The pair stood in a faux winter village, sharing exaggerated strains and ending with an embrace meant to repeat scenes from vacation films.

The viewers cheered when Colbert introduced that Harry had gotten the position of “official Late Present Prince of Christmas,” but it surely didn’t erase the uncomfortable moments that got here earlier than it.

This was not Prince Harry’s first time on the present, as he beforehand appeared in January 2023 to advertise his memoir “Spare.” Nevertheless, viewers agreed this was his strangest.

Offstage, Meghan teased the looks on Instagram, regardless of main household drama unfolding elsewhere.

Hours after the episode aired, Meghan reposted a video of Harry and Stephen Colbert doing a lip-sync remake of a “Nice British Bake Off” scene.

The unique clip concerned confusion between the phrases “beg” and “bake,” and Harry went all-in on the exaggerated reactions.

He wiggled his eyebrows, widened his eyes, and burst into loud laughter whereas Colbert performed the position of baker Mark Lutton.

The lip-sync clip raised eyebrows as a result of it got here proper after Meghan launched her Netflix vacation particular, and there was no point out of her father’s hospitalization.

As an alternative, the couple continued to put up playful content material because the sketch gained consideration for being certainly one of Harry’s most uncomfortable TV appearances but.