THE GUARDIAN

COMMENT

Lay off Harry and his Nazi uniform, says comedy prankster Aaron Barschak , he's just behaving like any normal 20-year-old who knows the world is ready to judge his every action

Bad taste, bad timing, bad prince ... these are the rotten epithets being hurled at a 20-year-old in tabloid stocks. I can guarantee that had anyone other than Prince Harry worn a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party, no one would have blinked an eye. If one of the Young British Artists had superimposed the McDonald's golden arches over a photo of the entrance to Auschwitz and substituted for Arbeit Macht Frei the words Arbeit Macht Fries, we would be commenting on how satirical and clever it was in a post-post-modern, post-9/11 global multinational world and then Charles Saatchi, a good Jewish art dealer, would have sold it for a cool million. If there were an indie girl band called the Desert Foxes, who dressed up in the uniform of Rommel's Afrika Korps and released a punk version of Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles, we would laugh and say: "Good marketing ploy." If a middle-class 20-year-old from the suburbs went to a birthday party dressed the same way, we would say, "He is so obviously trying to be outré and piss his parents off, it's laughable." But when Prince Harry does it, we're ready to put him on trial at Nuremberg. His legacy is that everybody is now going to go to fancy-dress parties dressed up in Afrika Korps uniform, trying to be Prince Harry.

"He's 20, he should know better," I have heard people say. Wrong! Your 20s are the time to do stupid things and get them out of your system, otherwise you keep everything inside of yourself and end up being arrested for gatecrashing a royal party dressed as the world's most wanted terrorist in your mid-30s.

People are concerned about the timing of Harry's faux pas, in the run-up to Holocaust memorial day. There are two possible explanations for this: one, Harry was unaware that the liberation of Auschwitz was commemorated on January 27. Two, that he did know that January 27 was the Holocaust memorial day and this made him want to dress up as a Nazi officer even more. There is nothing greater than the lure of forbidden fruit; it has been man's downfall since the beginning of time.

But whatever the truth, it's not important, because this was a private party. There are many "normal" people who don't have cameras trained on them 24 hours a day who partake in shocking, immoral and illegal activities behind drawn curtains andd are not hauled over the coals for it, perhaps partly because society is to blame, or because it's a free country, or because they're only having a laugh, but mainly because it won't sell papers. If you can find a royal doing something, you've got a guaranteed circulation boost for that day. Why are you reading this article, if not to find out what the bette noire of royal parties thinks of the royal bete noir of parties?

I suspect that Harry is conscious of his profile and, precisely for that reason, decided to wear the costume no matter what. Would any of you be told how to live your life by interfering, outside observers? The rebellion of the individual against society is quintessential to democracy. If a person is constantly judged by society before he has taken any reckless actions, and is criticised for actions that he takes that he sees normal folk get away with all the time, eventually he will blow a gasket and say, "All right, they want me to be the bad guy, I'm going to really show them how bad I can be."

And so Harry donned a swastika, perhaps the most offensive symbol one can imagine. Of course it's offensive! He wanted to offend, he wanted to shock. He probably thought the paparazzi would be there.

The swastika produces a Pavlovian reaction in us like nothing else. We are quite happy to eat at restaurants called the New Cultural Revolution, regardless of the fact that the cultural revolution in China imprisoned and killed millions of people. It is cool to wear the hammer and sickle on your chest, never mind that Stalin sent countless numbers to the gulags to die. But the swastika is a no-no.

And accusations of "bad taste" also strike me as curious. Bad taste is this country's religion. It is as English as brown windsor soup. It is the one sport we still lead the world in. I doubt there are many who, within hours of 9/11, did not receive a sick text message that they sniggered at before feeling guilty about whether they should be allowed to snigger or not. I remember hearing jokes about Kenneth Bigley during his kidnap that seemed OK in private, but demanded condemnation in public.

And these are the points. Harry was at a private party, however, he is a public figure so he must have known it would get into the papers but he wasn't going to change his life because he was being watched. He's far from alone in his behaviour - "It's a hazard of the job," a papparazzo friend of mine said of being punched by celebrities. I find much more sickening the sight of celebrities desperate to get on TV associated with the Asian tsunami, looking self-righteous and declaring how much they've given in aid, than the prospect of a 20-year-old trying to shock people at a fancy-dress party by wearing a Nazi uniform.

If you have never given the finger to society in an outrageous act, you are a poorer person. You have nothing to reflect on in later years, you have nothing to question yourself about, and, more importantly, you have not yet got it out of your system. And at 20, you want to be the most controversial around. Why can't we accept that of Harry? Everyone wants this boy to be treated like everyone else, without privilege, but they're not prepared to treat him like everyone else. He is just another 20-year-old - laugh at his efforts to shock.

I am more worried about the people his age who don't make mistakes. In Harry , we have a 20-year-old behaving irresponsibly. You want a "normal" royal? You got one. Thank God and save the Queen.

And Harry, if you're reading this, and if on your 21st birthday party you see in the corner some guy dressed up as Adolf Hitler, don't worry. It's only me.