The Surprising Way A Dropped Piece Of Paper At Queen's Elizabeth II's Funeral Went Viral

As with the fly that landed on Mike Pence's head in the middle of a Vice Presidential debate and the plastic water bottle accidentally left behind in a "Downton Abbey" promotional photo, people watching Queen Elizabeth II's funeral on TV couldn't stop staring at a tiny detail that definitely was not intended to be the focus of the event. This time, it was a small piece of paper accidentally dropped by a bishop in the middle of the queen's funeral service at Westminster Abbey — and it happened to land directly within the camera frame, right next to the coffin, per USA Today.

The unfortunate man who dropped the paper, as well as the paper itself, have already gone viral on Twitter, where social media users seem torn between pity for the bishop and hilarity at the live-broadcast blooper. The innocent sheet of paper has even generated its own hashtag, #Papergate, and its own Twitter account.

The slip of paper — which a bishop dropped at Queen Elizabeth II's funeral on Sept. 19, 2022 — has its own Twitter account that reads, "Will I pick it up, or won't I? What is on my paper? So many questions, not enough answers," in the bio. There's also a pinned tweet that reads, "Imagine being the guy who dropped me during the queen's funeral." However, other tweets using the #Papergate hashtag have gotten even more attention. 

"Actual close up of the dropped paper," one person on Twitter joked, with a photo of a sheet of paper reading, "Don't drop the paper." Another person accurately tweeted, "The piece of paper is going to [be] famous." Yet another person tweeted, "When Netflix make the funeral episode, will they replicate the paper drop?" Yet another person quipped on Twitter, from the point of view of the butterfingered bishop, "'Oh no, I just dropped me white piece of paper. Hopefully the camera doesn't do a slow zoom on it, and we'll be fine.'" 

Luckily for the guy who dropped the paper, the world seems to have been more focused on the paper itself than on his face. He should be fine.