Farewell, Possums
RIP Barry Humphries (1934-2023), the Australian actor who invented Dame Edna Everage, his “giga-star” character who enjoyed great popularity throughout the Anglophone world from the 1980s through the 2010s. Edna was a simple housewife from Melbourne who was famous for being famous—a confidante of queens, prime ministers, and presidents, by his own telling. Edna excelled at double entendre and back-handed compliments.
Barry Humphries’s genius was in honing these comic characters with Australian working-class roots. They were caricatures animated by his sharp wit. He never broke character, and stole the stage of any talkshow that dared to feature his creations. At the height of his popularity, he had his own television comedy variety show, which he said (as Edna) was “a monologue interrupted by strangers”.
One of his least savory creations was Sir Les Patterson, Australian cultural attache to the Court of St. James—a drunken, smoking, boorish man with a stable taxpayer-funded job.
It was good fun watching his interviewers and fellow interviewees on the talkshows as they lost all composure laughing while Sir Les drooled and belched his way through the formalities—not to mention while they tried not to watch what was going on in his lap. No worries.
His humor might not have been for everyone, but I liked it.
A more sweeping obituary from The Guardian (UK) newspaper is here.
I don't know what I did, but, my introductory post disappeared...sigh
I need to save as I go I guess...
Anyway...here goes...Good Morning All...
Dame Edna is too funny, and he isn't politically correct which I like. There is something about British comedians ( and actors for that matter, I am binging Midsomer Murders, which is a British show and it is excellent) they are so good at it...I like Benny Hill and Monty Python of course too...and dressing up in drag is more accepted there apparently...lol...) sorry) ( the only kind of humor I can't abide or understand is bathroom humor and derogatory words about women...)
Today has a lot of National Days, but I am sticking with the easier ones as I am behind today. Nat'l Pretzel Day ( yea, especially soft pretzels and they are better for you than chips etc) Nat'l Denim Day, which is meant as a wear denim in awareness of sexual and physical abuse ( of which I am very aware...lol). I wear denim jeans of all colors and capris most days at work, so I am covered...lol...also Nat'l Professional Administrators Day of which I am one of those..
I am behind partly because my hairdresser last night said she could do the purple highlights I wanted, but, that meant bleaching the sections she was going to highlight, and that makes the process longer , so I was there for 3 hours instead of the usual hour and a half, I am very pleased with the results though...glad I budgeted more money for this visit...lol..it is not cheap...and that put me behind at home as I didn't get there till about 8pm...so running behind still
So much to do, read , take care of and I am more and more having to choose what I do with what time I have
Edited to correct typos and incorrect word usage though I know the difference and can't figure out why the wrong one often shows up...lol..( accepted/excepted for instance)
And as always, Happy Hump Day