The most significant comedian since Chaplin?

And interestingly, Humphries described Les Patterson as his favourite character.

Well then, sweet was his revenge.

But Humphries had no time for Royal pretentions either.

Who else could have got away with Edna's ultimate irreverence when, sitting with the Royals in a gala performance, Edna gets up and informs the then future King Charles and Camilla, that he is going to leave them because "a better seat" was found for her?

So, will Barry Humphries be remembered by us all as the most hilariously original and irreverent Aussie larrikin; a peerless knocker?

Now lets try to answer the question:

'Who was the real Barry Humphries?'

I think he was a person who achieved what so many of us wish we could have but have not: he succeeded in doing his own thing and stay playful throughout his life.

As a young kid, having been bored to tears by what the best of his wealthy parents' suburbia could offer him, he turned to playacting, which he never stopped.

He put on different clothes, men's and women's, and he played fictional characters to be noticed and to draw laughter from his several visiting aunts.

His mother warned them: 'Look away from Barry, he is an attention seeker.'

Yet the more his Mum did this, the more attention seeking Barry became.