RIP Barry Humphries/Dame Edna Everage

[Boodi 2]

Sad to hear that Barry Humphries, the comedian best known for his character Dame Edna Everage, passed away today at the age of 89. RIP

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sad news. RIP Barry Humphries.

[Courtenay]

Yes, sad news for us Aussies too, of course. RIP Barry Humphries — and Dame Edna, Sir Les Patterson, Sandy Stone, Bazza McKenzie, and possibly others that I can't remember...

[Boodi 2]

Yes, sad news for us Aussies too, of course. RIP Barry Humphries — and Dame Edna, Sir Les Patterson, Sandy Stone, Bazza McKenzie, and possibly others that I can't remember...

Indeed, especially following the sad loss of Judith Durham and Olivia Newton John not all that long ago.

[GloomyGraham]

Was very sad to hear this yesterday.

But I watched a heap of Dame Edna clips on YouTube and that had me roaring with laughter.

[timv]

A unique talent who I've watched on TV for many years - and a master of mischief. His interactions with the celebrities who he'd send up to their faces in his 'interviews' were particularly memorable, eg Michael Parkinson, and there was far more to him than just the cultural 'send-ups' and his Dame Edna characterization. An early talent on 'Private Eye' magazine as a cartoon-strip series creator back in the late 1960s, as I was surprised to discover.

A master of one-liners, which you did not know were 'off the cuff' or practised beforehand - I remember in one of his early 'Dame Edna' programmes in the UK, sending up celebrity tours of tourist hot-spots (in itself an acute note satire on how TV was going, well before the age of all the modern Portillo-style travel programmes) Edna was touring Stratford on Avon, spotted a typical 1970s Mini car with wooden framed back doors, and declared 'Ooh, look, possums - a half-timbered car!' Brilliant. RIP.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I love the 'half-timbered car' comment!

My friend's grandmother believed for many years that Dame Edna Everage was genuinely a flamboyant, chatty lady.

[Boodi 2]

Many years ago an Australian friend gave me a present of his/Dame Edna's book "My Gorgeous Life", which is ever so funny and still graces my library.