About

Prince Andrew Is a Sweaty Nonce is a catchphrase used to describe Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II's son, brother of King Charles III and the Duke of York. The term "nonce" is British slang for "sex offender" or "pedophile" and is used in reference to Prince Andrew after his alleged implications in the Jeffrey Epstein Sex Trafficking Case, which saw him notably make a settlement in 2022 for an undisclosed amount to Virginia Giuffre. The use of "nonce" to refer to the Prince dates back to 2011 when the BBC reported on Prince Andrew and his friendship with Epstein, but the combined catchphrase "Prince Andrew is a sweaty nonce" emerged in 2019 following his BBC interview in which he sweats while being questioned about the Epstein association. The use of the phrase was later repopularized after a satirical punk band released a parody song in May 2022 and after a protester heckling Prince Andrew was arrested in September following the Queen's death that year.

Origin

The British slang term "nonce" has disputed origins, however, the term likely emerged from "nance" or "nancy" as a reference to homosexuality. The term is also said to be derived from the acronym "Not On Normal Communal Exercise," a phrase used to refer to pedophiles in prison who were not allowed to mingle with the general prison population.^[13]

In March 2011, the BBC^[1] first reported on Prince Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein. The article also covered various controversies surrounding Andrew's position as a Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy for the U.K. March 2011 also saw the first mentions of Prince Andrew being called a "nonce" on the internet, with Twitter^[2] user @willtapply posting a tweet about the issue on March 7th, 2011 (seen below). The post gathered two likes and four retweets in nearly 11 years.

In September 2012, an image of Prince Andrew, Ghislaine Maxwell and Virginia Giuffre (a minor that had been sex trafficked by Epstein and also later sued him) surfaced on the internet on a now-deleted blog (seen below).^[3]

In December 2014, Prince Andrew was then named as one of several prominent public figures to have allegedly participated in sexual activities with Virginia Giuffre. It was confirmed at the time that Giuffre was the unknown minor in the aforementioned photograph.^[4] Mentions of Prince Andrew being a "nonce" resurfaced on the internet again in January 2015, with Twitter^[5] user @JoanneLouT posting a meme about James Bond and the Queen rushing to delete Andrew's browsing history (see below). The tweet gathered 15 likes and 19 retweets in nearly seven years.

On November 16th, 2019, Prince Andrew was interviewed by BBC News, after which he claimed that he "did not sweat" during the interview and said, "I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War, when I was shot at … it was almost impossible for me to sweat."^[6] This led to the first instances of Andrew being called a "sweaty nonce" on the internet, with Twitter^[7] user @_sean_connor_ using the phrase in a tweet from November 17th, 2019, gathering 47 likes and two retweets in nearly three years (seen below).

Spread

On May 7th, 2022, the Twitter^[8] account @BritishComedy tweeted about the satirical punk band The Kunts releasing a song titled "Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce." The post gathered nearly 300 likes and over 80 retweets in nearly five months (seen below).

On May 23rd, the YouTube^[9] channel ChortleUK then posted the music video for the aforementioned song, gathering over 200,000 views in nearly five months (seen below).

On June 22nd, 2022, Twitter^[11] user @allinwhites tweeted about the catchphrase being used in the 2022 Glastonbury music festival. The tweet gathered over 40,000 likes and over 3,000 retweets in nearly three months (seen below).

On September 12th, Twitter^[10] user @Phil_Lewis_ then posted a video of a man heckling Prince Andrew during the late Queen's funeral procession. The post gathered over 100,000 likes and over 13,000 retweets in nearly three days (seen below).

Somebody yells out, “Andrew, you’re a sick old man” to Prince Andrew, who is walking behind Queen Elizabeth’s coffin pic.twitter.com/M6DsyuPLXR

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 12, 2022

On September 12th, 2022, Twitter^[12] user @DobbyClub06 used the phrase in a meme commenting on the arrest, gathering over 16,000 likes and over 1,000 retweets in two days (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References