RIP John Clarke

One of Australia's greatest satirists, John Clarke (actually a New Zealander), died yesterday. Perhaps little known outside Australia and New Zealand, he was a supremo of dry, laconic wit. He was second only to Barry Humphries on the (my) list of "Australian" comic legends.

Clarke wrote and starred in a great mockumentary series called The Games, spoofing the bureaucracy behind Sydney's hosting of the 2000 Olympics. Spanning two series over 1998 and 2000, The Games predated The Office and was subsequently plagiarised by the BBC as Twenty Twelve, prompting Clarke to post on his website: "John and [co-writer] Ross Stevenson ... run a charitable institute supplying formats to British television".

Clarke was a gifted writer and poet. Over the decades, he "impersonated" just about all major Australian political figures, always using his own flat, nasal voice. Here's something Euro-relevant from a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ue9ek9tTSg

You said it all there,Kenneth.
He will be sorely missed.

I despair at modern, lazy obituaries being based around banal tweets from celebs/politicians/contemporaries. But there was a quaintly amusing one in a New Zealand paper, mentioning John Clarke's riposte to John Cleese's claim that Clarke's hometown of Palmerston North could drive a person to suicide:

John Clarke never forgot his Palmerston North roots - even devising the city's revenge against John Cleese's infamous 'suicide' barb.

It was Clarke who suggested that the city council should name its rubbish dump after Cleese, and the infamous Mt Cleese sign appeared at the old landfill at Awapuni in 2006.

* Incidentally, Cleese claims to have happily lost his virginity in New Zealand.

He also help write the Barry McKenzie comic strip and had a small role in the film as a fellow Aussie.

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 13th April 2017, 5:07 AM

He also help write the Barry McKenzie comic strip and had a small role in the film as a fellow Aussie.

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I was not aware that he had any role in writing the comic strip. I thought it was just Barry Humphries (words and comic storyboards) and Nicholas Garland (art) and Peter Cook (who came up with the idea). Humphries did use a lot common Australianisms that some people subsequently gave him credit for inventing.

The comic strip ran in Private Eye from 1964 to 1974. Clarke had arrived (from New Zealand) in London in 1971. Shooting for the movie started in London in January 1972. One of Clarke's friends put his name on a list for Aussie extras for the movie. He met Humphries and director Bruce Beresford, and they gave him a couple of scenes and a few lines. First, at the Rickmansworth Young Conservatives Ball, where Clarke is among the back-room Aussies enjoying a piss-up. Commenting upon Barry McKenzie's girlfriend (who later showed up in Revelation of the Daleks), he notes that "some of those sheilas who don't look so good are great little performers". Then he shows up at the BBC TV center as one of the Australian artists (an underground film director) to be interviewed -- and provides the punchline for a typically highbrow Humphries joke about Karlheinz Stockhausen. Humphries noticed and appreciated Clarke's talent and advised him to consider doing comedy for a living. Clarke took the advice and was back in New Zealand by 1973 and started his comedy career. Not sure whether he contributed anything to the comic strip in the interim. He moved to Australia in 1977 because his comedy was deemed too political for sensitive New Zealand TV.

I thought for a minute it said John Cooper Clarke. That's a relief. Never heard of John Clarke.

John Cooper Clarke being the "punk poet" who has carefully maintained his hairstyle since the 1970s and now appears on Pointless Celebrities?

John Clarke the Kiwi was a great talent but had a fear of flying so tended to stay in Australia. Here he is commenting on Margaret Thatcher's legacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHBRjERga38 (actually spoofing all the "talking head" experts who gave such gushing tributes)

Quote: Kenneth @ 13th April 2017, 12:19 PM

John Cooper Clarke being the "punk poet" now appears on Pointless Celebrities?

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Unless he's the warm up, the answer is: "So has nearly everyone."

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 13th April 2017, 3:10 PM

Unless he's the warm up, the answer is: "So has nearly everyone."

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I don't recall seeing any of the Pythons or Rowan Atkinson or Bill Bailey or Fry & Laurie or Gervais & Merchant or French & Saunders on Pointless Celebrities. Have seen a few episodes and usually recognize/know of only one or two, such as Keith Chegwin and Bill Oddie. The problem with Pointless Celebrities is that it tends to put them into the "has-beens" basket and transforms them into imbeciles. The only exception is the Chuckle Brothers.

Phony excitement and drivel banter, the hallmarks of Pointless and talking heads, are the sort of thing that John Clarke satirized so well.

Just saying that John Cooper Clark is a bit more than a Pointless Celebrity and the "now" didn't make much sense.

Quote: Kenneth @ 13th April 2017, 6:25 PM

The problem with Pointless Celebrities is that it tends to put them into the "has-beens" basket and transforms them into imbeciles. The only exception is the Chuckle Brothers.

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Are you saying that the Chuckle Brothers are not has-beens? Or do you mean they never were?