Dame Edna alter ego loses ‘Barry’ award for sake of neutral gong

Melbourne Inter­national Comedy Festival organisers have stripped Barry Humphries’ name from an award.

Barry Humphries, as Dame Edna Everage, will no longer have the Melbourne International Comedy Festival award named after him. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Barry Humphries may be famous for his gender bending but organisers at the Melbourne Inter­national Comedy Festival have stripped his name from an award because of political correctness.

The festival announced yesterday his name has been dropped from an award to make the gong gender-neutral, provoking controversy among comedians and providing another target for ­Humphries’s infamously barbed humour.

MICF director Susan Provan said removing gender from the award was appropriate as a third of the recipients of the Barry were women.

“As one of Victoria’s major events and one of the world’s greatest comedy festivals, it is time for (the) award for most outstanding show to be in our name,” she said. “Removing gender from the award name is appropriate now — not least to acknowledge that one-third of all past recipients are women.”

Actor Barry Humphries in character Sir Les Patterson, Minister for the “Yartz’’.

Ms Provan said the award was about Melbourne, not Barry Humphries, Australia’s most famous comic export.

“The award is not tied to any one person to best celebrate and focus on the outstanding artists who make up Melbourne Inter­national Comedy Festival,” she said. “The award name celebrates Melbourne as the city that inspired the growth of our festival.”

Other high-profile comedians last night expressed their opposition to the decision.

“The new name, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award, is a mouthful. I think it should be called Not The Barry Award,” Jimeoin told The Herald Sun. “Or The I Couldn’t Give a F..k Award. Every year it ­attracts some controversy, that way it becomes bigger and bigger.

“I did one TV show with him. He (Humphries) was a lovely man, as far as his career’s concerned, he’s a fantastic comedian.”

Comedian Greg Fleet said he also disagreed with the name change.

The award goes to the best in show and was launched in 1998 as the Stella Award. It was renamed the “Barry” in 2000 to honour Humphries, who was one of the show’s founding patrons.

Former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu, who served on the MICF board for more than a decade, said the name change was a bit sad.

“I think it’s a bit sad but I don’t think Barry will be that fussed — I think Edna is more likely to be fussed,” he told The Australian.

“If anyone was gender-neutral, I thought it would probably be Edna Humphries, (but) Barry has been irreverent in the past I ­acknowledge.”

Humphries attracted widespread controversy last year after he called being transgender “a fashion” in Britain’s The Spectator.

“How many different kinds of lavatory can you have? And it’s pretty evil when it’s preached to children by crazy teachers.” The comedian also described calls for transphobia to be treated as a form of assault as “terrible ratbaggery”.

Victorian opposition arts spokesman David Davis said Humphries couldn’t be whitewashed from history.

“While not defending any specific comment that’s been made, Barry Humphries’s enormous contribution to entertainment and to Australian arts over decades can’t easily be airbrushed away,” he said. “I think there’s a role for recognising people who’ve made such a long-term contribution.”

Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews declined to weigh in on the matter yesterday.

A spokeswoman for Martin Foley, the Victorian Minister for Equality and Creative Industries, said he was broadly supportive of the move but it was ultimately a matter for the festival.