Barry Fantoni, author, cartoonist, jazz musician, and creator of the satirical magazine Private Eye’s poet in residence, EJ Thribb, has died at his home in Turin at the age of 85.

As Wikipedia puts it, Thribb’s poems are “usually about recently deceased famous people, and always begin ‘So, farewell then...’  He also usually mentions the deceased's ‘catchphrase’ or theme song, and his poems often feature his friend Keith, or Keith's mum … The poetry consists of a stream of consciousness which is just broken up into lines.”

“Stream of consciousness” is certainly one way of describing Thribb’s work. The column, which was created by Fantoni in 1972, and has been continued by others after he gave it up in 2010, pokes gentle fun at those ‘poets’ whose verse lacks rhythm, rhyme, and any kind of imagery or metaphors. Some of us may be shifting uneasily in our seats at this moment.

Thribb’s style – or lack of it – is the continuing joke. He is also ageless. He has remained 17 and a half since his creation, and his lack of development is mirrored in his poetry.

Barry Fantoni joined the staff of Private Eye in 1963. He was behind some of the magazine's most famous characters and features, including Colemanballs and Neasden FC. He also wrote scripts for the BBC TV programme That Was the Week That Was in 1962, and hosted a short-lived BBC TV show called A Whole Scene Going in 1966.

Paying tribute to Fantoni, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop said: “Barry was a brilliant multi-talented writer, artist and musician. He was an integral part of Private Eye's comic writing team from the early days in the sixties and I hugely enjoyed collaborating with him when I joined the magazine later on. He created formats and characters and jokes that are still running and he was for a long time the voice of the great poet and obituarist EJ Thribb. So farewell then Barry.”

Poetry’s dedicated Otwituarist, Andy Jackson, who also regularly posts poetic tributes to the recently deceased, summarised Fantoni thus:  

 

So, farewell then E. J. Thribb.

‘So, farewell then’, that was your

catchphrase. Not very catchy,

though Keith’s mum liked it,

as did all your readers, who now

will not know when someone

has died.

 

But the truth is, EJ Thribb lives on. See his work in the latest Private Eye. And it was Barry Fantoni’s brilliant idea in the first place.