I had forgotten, really, how big Barry Humphries had been for a time in America, but his (quite long and detailed) obituaries in the Washington Post and New York Times correct that.
His trajectory through life was interesting and a little peculiar: making entry into comedy by satirising the comfortable middle class from which he came (a very Lefty of thing to do, and the crudity of his Barry McKenzie period - which leaves me cold - was typical of the taste of the artsy Left crowd of the time), to giving the impression of being somewhat coddled by and absorbed into the world of (especially) the British establishment because his "roasting" of them gave sufficient amusement, much like a court jester of old (or at least, how we imagine court jesters operated). I suppose it was a bit similar to Clive James, except he genuinely came from a poor background and climbed out if it with a more high brow self education (although still playing the clown when it suited.) Maybe he still counted as a "champagne socialist" for some of his life, although when someone starts writing in The Spectator (and having one of your last conversations with Rowan Dean - groan) the absorption into the Right seems total.
Still, there is no doubt at all that people admired him (me too, I would always watch his TV specials from the late 80's onwards) because of the incredible speed, and absurdity, of his wit. I mean, what sort of mind does it take to come up with the idea of a housewife making a career for herself while her frail husband is on a prostate support machine in his nursing home? Still, I was never sure I would enjoy one of his stage shows with their trademark harassment of (at least one, I think) audience member. I always worried I would find myself sympathising too much with the victim, so I never took the opportunity to see him.
I think it is also true to say that Dame Edna herself was genuinely an apolitical character, given that the key to so much of the humour was her gormless self absorption, and this is something that can afflict people on all parts of the political spectrum.
People on Twitter have dug up and re-publicised Hannah Gadsby's 5 year old attack on Humphries, and many in the transgender Twitter crowd have confirmed that his name was verbotten because he was not - to put it mildly - on their side. Given my disdain of most modern stand up comedy, I think the true lesson Gadsby and her ilk should take from him is how successful you can be when your material is not autobiographical and about working out and publicising your private problems on stage.
4 comments:
I have to say I never found him funny at all. Having a go a people who were late was never funny to me. It merely showed up his insecurity.
I am not surprised his family life was a shocker given his main character was a woman. how mixed up he must have been.
He wasn't to everyone's taste: I don't think either of my parents ever liked him much (and certainly not the Les Patterson character) perhaps partly because his humour did feel of the Left in its early days, and also they never really "got" absurdist jokes or humour. That said, I think my father didn't mind the Goon show, but he never was keen on Monty Python or the later Spike Milligan. I don't think my mother even tried to watch Monty Python.
I saw a - I think socialist - historian elsewhere criticising Humphries, making a main point of his comments the fact that Humphries had hung around with socialists in his youth and then left them. (He didn't have political commitments, you see - it demonstrated his unseriousness). I find this point wholly unremarkable. Try hanging out with artist types and you'll end up in a socialist crowd, 99 times out of 100.
obviously never read Churchill, He said something likw if you are not a communist at 18 you do not have a heart and if you sill are at 30 you do not have any brains
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