Geneticists at Cambridge University who've studied the subject, say the genetic condition predisposing certain royal personages to gaffes - known clinically as pompous freeloaderous - invariably skips a generation, meaning it should have shown up by now in either Prince William, his brother Harry, or both.
The fact it hasn't lends credence to the argument Prince Philip, and therefore Prince Charles, are not genetically related to the youngest prince.
Prince Philip's gaffes are legendary. For instance, during a royal visit to China in 1986, he said to a group of British students: "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed."
Examining a fuse box in a factory during a 1999 visit to Edinburgh, he said: "It looks as if it was put in by an Indian."
While Prince Philip's gaffes over the years have outraged the UK press, they have endeared him to millions of subjects because they show him to be a normal person prone to making the odd faux pas.
Here are just a few more of Prince Philip's lighthearted quips and gaffes:
"How about a root?" - to a senior member of the CWA during an Australian Royal Tour in 1970.
"That was a bloody Masonic handshake, you sly old wog." - on meeting His Holiness Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1988.
"This place is run by darkies." - during a 1993 royal tour of Africa.
"Fuck off and bring me a Scotch." - to a waiter at a 1982 conference in Paris.
"Get me a gun, Rice Eyes, I want to bag one." - to a zoo attendant during a 1989 inspection of an endangered panda exhibit at Beijing Zoo.
"Well, that's it. I just shit myself." - cutting short his speech opening a car factory in Bristol in 1998.
"Her Majesty's on the blocks at the moment ... fancy being queen for a night?" - aside to schoolgirl, 10, during a 1994 visit to a Catholic convent school in west Namibia.
"Well it wouldn't have been through brain injury!" - consoling his son Charles on hearing news of the death of Princess Diana.
