Commentary
If ANZAC Day is secular Australia’s one day of “religious observance,” Barry Humphries might have been one of our only secular patron saints, embodying the culture’s virtues, or at least what we thought were our virtues.
While throwing the Anzacs and Humphries together in one paragraph might seem as surreal as some of his skits, they both speak to powerful currents that shaped modern Australia and now appear to be running out on a strong ebbtide.
War is more likely than at any time since 1939, but polls show fewer Australians than ever would fight to defend their country. And Humphries’ quintessential Australian honesty (well, at least we thought it was quintessentially Australian) led to him being virtually cancelled by the Melbourne Comedy Festival, which he co-founded with English comedian Peter Cook….