Wit of Whitlam (Main)

Self-proclaimed international treasure Gough Whitlam never shied away from a pun, a put-down or a witticism.

His wife Margaret was his 'best appointment', he called Malcolm Fraser 'Kerr's cur' after the Dismissal and when Sir Winton Turnbull called out in parliament 'I am a country member', Gough interjected 'I remember'.

When it was suggested he was funny, Gough responded: 'Funny! Funny? Witty, yes. Epigrammatic perhaps, but not funny. You make me sound like a clown.'

James Carleton, Radio National presenter and founder of the university club 'The Dewy-Eyed Whitlamites', presents a keepsake of Goughisms that vindicates the Great Man's self-assessment, 'I never said I was immortal, merely eternal.'