Sir Les Patterson

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Sir Lesley Colin Patterson is a fictional character portrayed by the Australian comedian Barry Humphries. Obese, lecherous and offensive, this farting, belching, nose-picking figure of Rabelaisian excess is an antipodean Falstaff.

Affectionately known as "Sir Les", he has served his country in many roles as:

Chairman of the Australian Cheese Board
Minister for the "Yarts" (arts)
Minister for Sport with special responsibility to keep sports rampantly heterosexual and "blokey"
Cultural attaché to the Court of St. James

He is Dame Edna Everage's exact opposite: she is female, refined, Protestant, and from Melbourne; he is male, uncouth, Catholic, and from Sydney (although he often claims to have attended Xavier College, a prestigious Melbourne Catholic school). He states that he is of Irish descent.

His humour abounds in such a wide range of racist and sexual stereotypes that it would offend almost anyone who takes it at face value.

He boasts of his prowess with his "Girl Friday" and his trips to Bangkok "rub and tug shops"
He jokes that "the best place to hide something from a Pom is under a bar of soap".
He also resents Australians having died "stopping a bullet for the Pommy Empire."

Sir Les was awarded the Douglas Wilkie Medal for doing the least for football in the best and fairest manner, in 1986. His dislike for the game of Australian rules football was illustrated when he coated a leather football in cream cake, and fed it to a camel.

Sir Les Patterson was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by Cambridge Union (a debating society) in a spoof ceremony. This caused great angst amongst Cambridge dons who were worried that the general public might mistakenly believe that Cambridge University had awarded the gong to Sir Les. Of course the Cambridge Union is not entitled to award honorary degrees in any case.

In 2000, a portrait of Barry Humphries as Sir Les Patterson by painter Bill Leak won the Packing Room award at the Archibald Prize.

Les Patterson also has his own segment in the ITV show The Dame Edna Treatment where he is usually teaching celebrity guests health and leisure subjects.

The Character is a loosely based homage to Australian country music legend Chad Morgan, The Sheik Of Scrubby Creek. Most Noteably Sir Les Patterson's teeth.