Editing Spike Milligan (section)

==Humour with the Prince of Wales==
[[Charles III]] (then the [[Prince of Wales]]) was a fan of Milligan. When Milligan received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the [[British Comedy Awards]] in 1994, the prince sent a congratulatory message to be read out on live television. The comedian interrupted the message to call the prince a "little grovelling bastard".<ref name=ObituaryGuardian/> He later faxed the prince, saying: "I suppose a [[British honours system|knighthood]] is out of the question?"

In reality, he and the prince were very close friends, and Milligan had already been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992 (honorary because of his Irish citizenship).<ref name="clare"/> He was made an honorary [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (KBE) in 2001.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1092540.stm|title = Honorary knighthood for Spike|date = 30 December 2000|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

On 23 July 1981, the Prince of Wales and [[Diana, Princess of Wales|Lady Diana Spencer]] were presented with a poem about the forthcoming [[Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer|Royal Wedding]], delivered to [[Buckingham Palace]] on a 3-foot-9-inch parchment scroll, written under the pen name MacGoonical. A ridiculous verse written in the style of [[William McGonagall]], the ode was commissioned by the Legal and General Assurance society as a "mark of esteem and affection". The verse, titled "Ode to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on the occasion of his Weeding", begins:

{{poemquote|Oh! Twas in the year 1981
Prince Philip was reading Page 3 of [[The Sun (United Kingdom)|''The Sun'']]!
They were all sitting in Buckingham Palace
Roaring with laughter at the comedy ''[[Dallas (TV series)|Dallas]]''.<ref>{{cite news |title=MacGoonical steals march on Betjeman |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/9qMST3 |access-date=23 April 2019 |work=Daily Telegraph |date=24 July 1981 |page=15}}</ref>}}