Dame Edna on the View this AM

[bajaespuma]

I know I'm always 12 steps behind the zeitgeist with this stuff, but I watched the View today. Dame Edna was a guest hostess and she was an absolute panic!! Can one of you list her bio (I'm curious to see the big girl behind the woman now). Very intelligent comic; made Joy look pedestrian. And I must say, usually I want to strangle Elizabeth Hasselbeck, but today I was very pleased on the stance she took against her party.

I'll admit it freely: I'm a big ole girl fan of the View.

 

[rp2813]

All I know is that Dame Edna is aka Barry Humphries in real life.

I've gone to see her live twice, and came away with headaches both times from laughing so hard almost non-stop.

 

[maytagbear]

This is an attempt at a Wikipedia link:

The article on Barry Humphries is a lot better than many Wikipedia entries, but is missing any mention the Dame Edna Malley's Whirlpool adverts. Gives a lot of space to Dame Edna, and a link to the separate Dame Edna page.

This is an attempt.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

Barry Humphries - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[wilkinsservis]

55 years and still going strong!

One of the first recorded Dame Edna monologues was in 1955 concerning her describing her house so as to be chosen to billet visitors for the 1956 Olympic games when they were held in Melbourne Australia. Consider whether Jack Benny or Lucille Ball (comedians from the same time) could host "The View" today and still be so relevant and funny? I think nearly everyone in Australia grew up with an aunt, mother, sister or friend in which there was a little bit of Edna. The fact that she is amusing to such a wide range of people over such a time span is remarkable. By the way she is far funnier to Australians who grew up in the second half of the twentieth century than anyone else as so much of her humour has a subtext that can only be understood by those.

 

[polkanut]

I love Dame Edna, she should be deemed an Australian national treasure.

 

[gizmo]

Other characters

Edna is Barry Humphries most famous character, but he has others:

Les Patterson, Australian cultural attache (diplomat) - of course he is not diplomatic at all, wearing a stained safari jacket with food (and possibly vomit) stains down the front, spitting and spilling food down his front as he talks and making very coarse asides to the audience;

Sandy Stone, a mild mannered old man from the genteel eastern suburbs of Melbourne, reminiscing in his dressing gown and slippers - the Sandy Stone routine is full of references to places and brand names of suburban Melbourne of the fifties and sixties - in a later show, Sandy has died and his ghost inhabits a supermarket on the site of his old home.

 

[bajaespuma]

Lawrence,

Thanks for the Wikipedia link. Very informative and now I know what she looks like.

For some reason, even though I've never been there, I keep thinking about moving to Melbourne for retirement. It seems to be calling me.

 

[jeffg]

Ken, if you've never seen The Dame Edna Experience (a TV show from the 80's), check it out.

Amazon.com

 

[chestermikeuk]

Priceless

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[jeffg]

Poor Sean Connery. He said afterward he was "terrified" of Dame Edna.

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