Sydney Sweeney Nazi row might seem bizarre - but it's actually a good thing

Sydney Sweeney is the face and body of a new ad campaign selling denim. It employs a pretty basic joke at its heart: a punning play on the word jeans, as in: "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans" (genes, geddit?). There's a secondary, even weaker gag where Sydney tells us: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour... my genes are blue" (as in blue denim... c',mon, keep up at the back!).

So far, so harmless, unless you happen to think puns are the lowest form of wit. But a super-woke cadre in the US, where denim firm American Eagle has based its campaign, has taken huge offence at it. Why? Because it "represents modern-day Nazi propaganda". Uhh? What, as in something Hitler's liar-in-chief Joseph Goebbels might have dreamed up? Seems so. One TikTok user opines thus.

"Praising Sydney Sweeney for her great genes in the context of her blonde hair and blue-eyed appearance [is] one of the loudest and most obvious racialised dog whistles we've seen and heard in a while."

Another concludes: "So, Sydney and American Eagle somehow expect audiences to not interpret this as a euphemism for eugenics and white supremacy?"

Er... yes, that's precisely what they expect people not to do. People like the one who posted this riposte to the conspiracy theorists.

"I'm not sure how to say this nicely, but if you sincerely believe a jeans ad with a pun about Sydney Sweeney being pretty is a Nazi dogwhistle, then you need to put the phone down for a while."

Even crisper was this, on X: "Calling it pro-eugenics because of a 'good genes/jeans' pun is genuinely unhinged. It's a denim campaign, not a manifesto. Not every blonde with blue eyes is a Nazi. Some of you guys need a history book - and a nap."

Not to mention a sense of humour. Actually, I rather welcome this blunt exchange. I think it's a good thing western society is sensitive to such issues.

It's healthy that we can debate a campaign like American Eagle's, openly and vigorously. I happen to think this one's a false alarm. But no harm in checking, is there?

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I'll never forget my friend who, years ago, walked into the marital bedroom to be confronted by the sight of her husband in bed with another woman.

"It's not what you think!" he declared, leaping naked from between the covers while his paramour dived beneath them. As defences go, I've heard stronger ones.

But it seems to be a surprisingly common spur-of-the-moment response to being caught in flagrante.

This week,Myleene Klass said she discovered her fiance and "a famous person" undressing each other at her, Myleene's, own birthday party.

"It's not what you think!" he shouted. "Oh, yes it is," replied Myleene, and kicked them both out of the party. And his parents too. Might as well be thorough about things.

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A new biography of Princess Margaret claims that the late Queen's sister was born with foetal alcohol syndrome.

Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Meryle Secrest says the Queen Mother drank so heavily during pregnancy that her youngest daughter was blighted for life.

Symptoms included stunted growth, impulse control problems and painful migraines. It's certainly true that Margaret displayed an overwhelming sense of entitlement throughout life.

My favourite story concerning this trait dates from the 1970s, and a lavish palace dinner. She was, as ever, chain-smoking throughout.

At some point her overflowing ashtray was removed but not replaced. Steadily the ash on her cigarette lengthened and curled; concerned fellow diners feared it was about to drop directly into her meal.

The gentleman seated to her right intervened. Extending his cupped hand towards the princess, he murmured: "Please... allow me, ma'am." "Oh... most kind. Thenk-you," Margaret replied. And she stubbed her cigarette out on his palm. Now THAT'S what I call entitled.