There is, rather conveniently, an actual novel called The Two Georges which imagines a world in which George Washington and King George III settle their differences and the American Revolution never happens. In that version of history, America remains within the British system, the empire adapts, and everyone carries on with a slightly different flag and a great deal more politeness. Charles’s joke worked because it gestured at that absurd possibility, only to return the room to reality. The revolution did happen. The king did lose. The republic did win. The story was settled.
