Warning! SPOILERS for The Walking Dead season 10, episode 15 ahead.
The Walking Dead season 10 pokes fun at Ezekiel for calling himself a King, with a line from Princess that's changed for sole the purpose of making the joke at his expense. Season 10 of the long-running AMC drama wrapped just recently, though it hasn't actually aired its final episode. Due to the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the work necessary to complete season 10 finale is unable to be completed at this time. Instead, The Walking Dead season 10 finale will release at a later, still undisclosed date.
Without a true finale, The Walking Dead season 10's penultimate episode, "The Tower" is the temporary end to season 10's story, leaving off on a cliffhanger ending that teases one final showdown between the survivors and the Whisperers. AMC has also released a trailer for Walking Dead's season 10 finale, and in addition to teasing the upcoming battle and those who may come to aide the survivors in their fight, the trailer also confirms that Maggie will finally return. But that's all Walking Dead fans have for the time being, a lot of teases for things to come - including a tease that the Walking Dead spinoff, World Beyond will reveal the truth about what happened to Rick Grimes.
In The Walking Dead season 10, episode 15, "The Tower", Ezekiel is at the mercy of another kind of teasing, one that pokes fun at his former title of King Ezekiel. The moment comes during Princess' rambling introduction when she explains why she calls herself Princess instead of Queen. Her reasoning is that a title like Queen would make her sound old and pretentious, and it's delivered while the camera pointedly looks at Ezekiel as he is noticeably struck by her words. Now, Princess doesn't know Ezekiel or that he used to call himself a King, but Eugene and Yumiko do and so does the audience. However, the joke is especially funny to anyone familiar with The Walking Dead comics because Princess' line in the TV show is changed from her original dialogue to include the word "pretentious", just so the teasing lands all that much harder on Ezekiel.
In The Walking Dead comics, Ezekiel isn't present when Princess is introduced. Sadly, he's already dead, having been one of Alpha's many victims from the fair to wind up with their heads on pikes. Like it often does, AMC's The Walking Dead decided to adapt the fair differently and chose other characters to be the murdered victims. And for the most part, this and other changes the TV show makes from its comic book source material have benefited the series in the long run. This joke at the expense of Ezekiel's pride is certainly a minor but no less good (and funny) example of how Walking Dead's writers can deviate from the source material and wind up with something better.
How The Walking Dead finishes season 10 and ends the Whisperer War is sure to be another of these changes from the comics. It appears they're setting up for a siege by the Whisperers on the hospital building instead of the open battle outside Alexandria that occurs in the comics. There are other differences, too, like having Eugene already on his way to meet Stephanie, and that mysterious character wielding the two scythes who Aaron and Alden see in the trailer. Just how these differences will change the outcome of the Whisperer War in The Walking Dead season 10 as compared to the comics remains to be seen, but however the survivors win, whether alone or with help, it's not going to be an easy fight.