There’s a push for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to return to calling its most prestigious award to ‘The Barry Award’ in honour of Barry Humphries.

The festival, which Humphries co-founded, dumped his name from the award in 2019 after comments he made about transgender people.

The comedy festival released a statement following Humphries’ death, but Neil Mitchell says they “didn’t really acknowledge his death properly”.

The 3AW Mornings host wants the Barry Award reinstated, and he’s not the only one — a petition has been started calling for the return of the Barry Award.

“They should reinstate the award and forget all this woke nonsense, and a petition has been started to that effect,” he said.

Press PLAY below to hear Neil’s view

Image: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images