Introduction to Special Issue of Journal of Comedy Studies on John Clarke: Trans-Tasman satirist: John Clarke and his art

On April 9, 2017, Australian satirist John Clarke died suddenly while bush-walking and bird-watching in the Grampians, some hills in Western Victoria. He might not have minded dying while he was doing something he loved almost as much as writing comedy, and not too short of the fullness of time (he was 68). For many Australians and New Zealanders, however, his death generated a wave of grief mixed with celebration of a body of work that had made him everyone’s ideal acerbic uncle.