We'll miss you, Dame Edna. The others not so much.

Saw him at the St James Theatre in Auckland in the late nineties.

He did 'all' his characters - it was hilarious.

Also heard him on a few documentaries as himself - Very dry, very funny, very astute and sharp witted.

Saw a bronze plaque at Circular Quay in Sydney years ago and chuckled at the words Barry Humphries had given:

I think that I could never spy
A poem as lovely as a pie

A banquet in a single course
Blushing with red tomato sauce

For the full version:

I think that I could never spy
A poem as lovely as a pie
Blushing with red tomato sauce
A banquet in a single course
A pie whose crust is oven kissed
Whose gravy scalds the eater’s wrist
The pastie and the sausage roll
Have not thy brown mysterious soul
The dark hues aborigine
Is less indigenous than thee;
As round and rich as Zara
As tasteful as Patrick White
With a glass of purple para
You’re the great Australian bite.”

John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE

gzt: I saw Les Patterson on TV when I was very young and believed he was a real Australian diplomat. I've watched it since and it's obvious now the jokes were completely over my head.

The joke is that Australian diplomats were really like that. Some probably still are.