It was not just Barry Humphries who died on Saturday.
It was that towering skewerer of pomposity and humbug, and gate-crasher of Royal boxes, Dame Edna Everage. It was Australia’s roving cultural attaché and Australian Minister for the Yartz, Sir Les Patterson. It was pathetic Melbourne suburban pensioner, Sandy Stone. It was colonial hellraiser Barry McKenzie. It was a host of other characters, who burst forth from Humphries’s determination to be different in a world that worshipped conformity, and his witheringly sharp eye for the absurdities of the human condition.
Like another hugely-talented man of many characters, Peter Sellers, Humphries kept the real him from most of the wider world. But Dame Edna, Sir Les, Barry McKenzie and all the rest were still Humphries. Safely hidden behind their masks, Humphries held a mirror to audiences round the world, including the cosseted, egotistical celebrities, politicians, and even royalty who dared to brave The Dame Edna Experience.
In his native Australia, and particularly his hometown of Melbourne, Humphries will be especially missed.
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