Barry Humphries, Australian comedian best known for alter-ego Dame Edna Everage, dies aged 89

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

The Australian comedian Barry Humphries, best known for his drag character Dame Edna Everage, has died aged 89.

​”​He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” his family said in a statement, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute in a tweet, calling him “a great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind.”

The entertainer had been readmitted to hospital on Wednesday for complications following hip surgery last month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Humphries had a hip replacement following a fall in February.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/22/celebrities/barry-humphries-dame-edna-dies-intl/index.html

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[TygrBright]

1. awwww... The world is just a little less fabulous today. Pass gently, dear soul. n/t

[marble falls]

2. Just a sad day. Fairwell, Possums.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. ......

[NullTuples]

4. Humphries was straight, strongly anti-trans, anti-lesbian and PRO-TRUMP

‘I’m grateful to Trump’ says Barry Humphries in transphobia-riddled interview

Barry Humphries, the performer behind Dame Edna Everage, has doubled down on past transphobic comments and praised Trump in a new interview.
Speaking to the British arm of conservative magazine The Spectator, Humphries speaks of his fondness for the frequently gender-defying art of cabaret while accusing trans activists of “terrible rat-baggery”.

“[Being transgender is] a fashion – how many different kinds of lavatory can you have?” Humhpries said, “And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers. They had their genitalia chopped off and tucked in and whatever they had to do,” he said, after recalling the time he labelled trans people “mutilated”.

“And that aroused a lot of indignation – probably among the people who’d spent a lot of money having it done. But I don’t think I’m right to pontificate. I’m really an actor. I agree with Germaine [Greer]. You’re a mutilated man, that’s all. Self-mutilation, what’s all this carry-on?” Humphries said in 2016, prompting frustration from the trans community.

In the interview, the writer asks Humphries if he thinks US President Donald Trump has cribbed something from another of his characters, Sir Les Patterson.

“No, I don’t think so. I’m grateful to Trump for stirring up politics. And I won’t be joining any marches against him.”

https://www.starobserver.com.au/news/national-news/barry-humphries-grateful-trump-transphobia-interview/170596

[AZSkiffyGeek]

8. Amazing how little people seem to care about transphobia when they think the person was funny

[ificandream]

5. A brilliant moment, one of many.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[ificandream]

6. Interesting quote found in a Guardian interview from 2018

Does anything frighten Humphries? Yes, he says: death. Now there is no irony or grandstanding. The thing is, he says, after the desperation of the alcohol years, he started to love life. “I picked up the gift of life 45 years ago. And now I look at the obituaries and see how old people are, and I think I’m getting to be that. And I think of all the things I’d like to be doing.” What scares him most? “Dropping dead on stage worries me. It’s happened to people I’ve admired like Tommy Cooper.”

Here's the link: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jul/11/barry-humphries-interview-offence-dame-edna-everage-sir-les-patterson

I was a big fan of Dame Edna. Her satire in the character was brilliant. Even reading about some of the controversial statements by Barry Humphries (which I was unaware of until today), it's hard for me to hate Dame Edna because the two, for me, are separate.

[Mark.b2]

7. Sad indeed...as a fan of British and Australia humor, I'm sad to see him go...

Now, I'm poked out to spend the evening watching Dame Edna videos. He was funny as hell and never resorte do being mean. And his humor quite often caused me to think for a moment t before I got the joke...which I love!

Goodbye, possums!