But on top of all that nasty business, we’ve now got ourselves another bizarre twist to add to the tale, with a spirited defence of Spurr’s “wise” choice of words coming from none other than Barry Humphries.
The newly announced cast member of the upcoming Blinky Bill film – and one of Australia’s most revered comedic performers – has apparently written a letter to
The Australian that not only vehemently defends Spurr’s language, but simultaneously bemoans an Australia that is on the verge of being “
bereft of its sense of humour.”
More to that, the letter seemingly contains a show of support for noted conservative pain-in-the-neck, Andrew Bolt. And, in one of the more chortle-inducing contradictions, claims in one breath that “the new puritanism is alive and well,” whilst in another brags about his own banning of the “f-word” at next year’s Adelaide Cabaret Festival.
The letter in full, published by The Australian today, reads a little something like this:
“Has Australia gone slightly mad? I read in the London press of some poor professor in Sydney who has been persecuted and suspended for sending emails to a friend in which he employs outrageous vernacular epithets for race which would be offensive if they were not so clearly jocular.
His reported response to the storm in a teacup which followed this revelation is, unsurprisingly, bewilderment. How could anyone take such deliberate touretting seriously? The answer, I fear, is that there are a lot of Australians these days who are totally bereft of a sense of humour. The new puritanism is alive, well and powerful.
Not long ago some poor guy was actually prosecuted for saying that the Aboriginal welfare services were sometimes exploited by faux Aborigines, even though we knew it was true.
Recently, I announced that when I curate next year’s Adelaide cabaret festival I will ban the F-word, and there was a howl of protest, indeed outrage, particularly from comedians. What kind of comedians were they, do you suppose? Why, comedians with no sense of humour of course! Or comedians whose stand-ups would be meaningless if deprived of one over-used word.
We really ought to be aware of this malignant brand of cultural fascism, and restore our reputation as a funny country before it’s too late.
Barry Humphries, London, UK“
Photo: AFP via Getty Images.
