II.iii.170
When Maria says "sport royal" she means making fun of Malvolio is the ultimate entertainment. Have you ever watched Viva la Bam, Jackass or Punkd? These 3 shows come to mind when i think of sport royal. The ultimate pranks and jokes. Johnny Noxville dressed as an old lady hitting on people's boyfriends, Bam shooting rocketlaunchers in the house to see his mom's reaction, Ashton Kutcher punking celebrities. I consider all of these things to be modern day "sport royal." Maria is just having fun like Bam or Ashton. The act is more to have fun than anything malicious. Anything done is not meant to hurt someone but just to get humor out of the person being misled. Maria doesn't really want to hurt Malvolio, she just wants to have fun with him.
This is all true and I love how you brought modern day references into it. It just shows that Shakespeare is still relevant today and can be applied to ours lives. This quote also has more meaning to it as well. She implies that it is something happening under royalty and in the countess' home. It is not just having fun and joking around, but doing so in a high society and playing an expansive joke. This also goes a little farther because she takes the joke farther than she probably should have and it almost becomes mean and no longer funny. Just some things to keep in mind.
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