The art of provocation: Barry Humphries RIP

by liberal japonicus

GftNC noted that Barry Humphries, whose creations of Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson were comic genius of the first order, had passed away. I'm not sure how familiar everyone here is with Barry Humphries, but below the fold are some thoughts and various Youtube videos

An appropriate bible verse to start off would be Mark 6:4 "A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house." Which might seem to be a little strange, as Humphries was feted in Australia, but the Guardian obituary makes clear that this was only after finding success in London.

The sketch was only a moderate success, but enough to point Humphries away from dramatic acting and towards the revue, music hall or cabaret. Also in 1955 he married Brenda Wright, and the following year they moved to Sydney to join a London-inspired theatre of “intimate revue”. He had found his metier, although Sydney satire was still too bland and self-congratulatory to satisfy his dandiacal rage. What Australia still needed, he said, was not mild satire, but a heroic act of espionage.

 

I know of one aussie commentator on the board, but not sure if there are others. Perhaps GftNC can discuss how Humphries falls on her ears, I learnt about Humphries through two paths, one was through England, where he could, like a number of other performers, play up his ockerism and have the Brits laugh at the ridiculousness of it. The second was thru Australian friends I had in Japan, who were all of rather liberal persuasion and saw Humphries satire as taking on a lot of the things they also had issue with and giving them an outlet.

For those of you who are unaware of Humphries, a few youtube clips to get your started.

The Guardian tribute gives a taste

It's enlightening to see the difference in the Sydney Morning Herald video

His most famous creation, ironic in a historical moment where drag shows have become so controversial, was Dame Evra Everage. Here is Dame Edna on Parkinson, and catches that British-Aussie frisson that was a big part of her success

Most of the clips you'll probably see are of Dame Edna, more problematic and one that hasn't aged as well is Les Patterson, the boozy and lecherous Australian cultural attaché. Here is the Parkinson interview

Most of the clips are of Humphries in a British context, but this is a bit different, he is being interviewed by Clive James, another Aussie in London.

It is pretty astonishing to watch him have Peter Cook absolutely silent.

I do wonder how much of the UK success (and relatively lack of US success) of Humphries and Dame Edna is due to the shared tradition of men in drag/Christmas panto. I also wonder if it is the case that Aussie comics can making it big in the UK are not uncommon, but Yanks I believe are rather rare. Anyway, have at it, possums!

Comments

[Girl from the North Country]

lj, if I ever saw that Clive James interview I had forgotten it, so thank you! It is astonishing to watch that genius Peter Cook be silent, but what is also so good about it is that it shows the extreme urbanity of BH, to contrast with the feel of his most famous creations. His articulacy, of course, is no surprise to anyone; Dame Edna's needle sharp and quick improvisation was one of her most notable characteristics. As for the UK drag aspect, I have already commented on why I think Dame Edna was something different, but mine may be a minority (and somewhat subtle) view.

On a side note, I am not generally a fan of the comedy of embarrassment, but there are exceptions. Fawlty Towers is one, but in the case of Dame Edna the absolute savagery of her satire was one of the notable features. It seems she was the personification (and inversion) of the petit-bourgeois conformism of his mother's type of Australian womanhood, which he hated. Apparently (I forget if it was in the Guardian obit, or one of the others), and FWIW, he always considered himself a Dadaist.

[Nigel]

Peter Cook was, of course, a drinking mate of Humphries (along with Spike Milligan).

[Nigel]

Humphries also left an obituary for himself, penned by Dame Edna, which the Telegraph published on his death.
https://twitter.com/john_ingham1/status/1650405056573743105

It's the most succinct, and arguably most accurate, of them all.

[sekaijin]

This is close to the bone for me, as I had an Australian mother of the generation he parodied. The cadences of Dame Edna's speech are more than a knowing nod to me - I hear echoes of my mum and her sisters in them.
As a characterizer of stock Australian archetypes of a bygone generation, he was devastatingly on-point - so much so that seen now, some of it is at best dated or at worst, highly problematic in a politically-correct world. The real-life Dame Ednas and Sir Lesses were like that - especially the latter, where the sum total of any joke was "sheilas" this and "poufs" that. I also know this intimately from the uncles on my mum's side, who talked just like this. And Humphries knew it too - and anyone who knew him also knew that at bottom, he couldn't stand the real versions of the ilk. He was an anomaly - urbane and cultured from a world that took pride in being neither, yet cringed when reminded of its parochialism.
If possible, you can look at that two ways if you are Australian or know anyone intimately from there. On the one hand, it's a remnant of a prior generation of Aussie imperialism, which is to say, castaway Brits on the odd end of the world. And in such a milieu, you served things up neat, with no chaser. That was how it got told and done, and there was no pussyfooting around. In and of itself - and this isn't excusing the casual sexism, racism, and homophobia that was rife at the time - not an unadmirable trait in a self-censorious, socially constipated world. But you can also look at it as the artifact of an immature culture that needed a smack upside the head to realize what part of the world it was in - that there was little point in calling Japan, China, etc. say, the Far East when it was the Near North, no matter how much Australia wanted to keep Asia at arm's length. (When Lee Kwan Yew said that when the Australian economy was in major downturn in the 1970s, it put it in danger of being the "poor white trash of Asia." He knew exactly how much that would sting.)
Be that as it may, his alter egos were hilarious when seen as pure characterization. I submit myself for arrest in the culture court - the Les Patterson bit had me laughing out loud. It was more than ad-libbed - he could lose himself entirely in these characters. But unlike Peter Sellers, he knew when to pull himself away just enough to allow his real personality to switch back on.
Warts and all - RIP Bazza. (And Dame Edna, and Sir Les.)

[Girl from the North Country]

Peter Cook was, of course, a drinking mate of Humphries (along with Spike Milligan).

More than that, Peter Cook was highly instrumental in giving Humphries his break(s) in the UK, as one of those clips shows. First, at the Establishment Club, and also (for the wonderful Barry Mckenzie) in Private Eye.

Of course, one cannot choose the friends and associates of artists one admires. Rupert Murdoch gave a gushing eulogy about BH to his papers, and I believe he was friends with Kissinger, among other undesirables. Also, I am told by fellow bibliophiles that his behaviour in pursuit of rare books was rapacious and dog-in-the-mangerish. But such is life: the world does not sort itself into convenient categories.

[liberal japonicus]

Sekaijin, thanks, really appreciate your take, you are who I was thinking about in the post. No other aussies here?

Think everyone will appreciate this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTIOWecB1ao

the part about Northern France and Southern England is... interesting.

[Girl from the North Country]

Marvellous, lj, and you can see how (understandably and quite rightly) nervous and suspicious BoJo is of Dame Edna. He knows how clever and dangerous she is. But he does manage to run away with the conversation a bit towards the end, on the France-England question, and evades the worst of her malice. Unfortunately! But I don't suppose it could have stopped his rise; his success on HIGNFY saw to that, by popularising him for the masses (who, knowing so little about him, took his apparent bumbling and good humour at face value).

[wj]

Another giant lost. RIP Harry Belafonte
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/25/entertainment/harry-belafonte-death/index.html

[Hartmut]

Strange kind of spam.

[wj]

If I read Arabic, I could at least see if it is always the same source. As it is, all I can see to do is delete it.

[CharlesWT]

Google Translate did a good job of translating previous Arabic language spam I've seen in the comments.

[JanieM]

@CharlesWT: -- you can read Arabic??

[CharlesWT]

No.

[JanieM]

So how do you know Google Translate did a good job?

[CharlesWT]

If the grammar and word usage are good, makes sense, it's probably a pretty good translation.

[liberal japonicus]

Because chatgpt told him it was?

That arabic spam started a few weeks ago, I deleted it and blocked the address, so I hope that should take care of it.

[wj]

When I was deleting the latest one, a couple of hours ago, I found 4 more in the spam folder. Not sure how many more iterations of its address this particular spam bot has.