Ernest Carroll (26 May 1929 – 30 March 2022) was an Australian puppeteer, entertainer, radio and television personality, comic writer, television producer and comic strip writer, most recognised for his role as the sidekick opposite Daryl Somers, as the man behind (and inside) Ossie Ostrich on Hey Hey It's Saturday, Cartoon Corner and The Daryl and Ossie Show.
[1] After attending the Vincent School of Broadcasting in Melbourne, he made his radio début on 3TR which at that time was based in Sale.
[4] He also penned the comic strip versions of Gerry Gee, Joy-Belle and Ossie Ostrich.
Carroll hired Somers to work on Cartoon Corner, and played the role of Ossie when Somers' co-host, the footballer Peter McKenna, was forced to withdraw: Carroll "decided to replace McKenna with ... one of his old puppet characters he had stashed in a suitcase.
An article about Carroll in The Age in 1993 described one episode of Hey Hey in which Nigel Kennedy told viewers "something like, 'Hey look, there's a bloke over there with his arm up the bird'", to which Carroll responded with "a rare on-air putdown ... 'Some people have no sense of fantasy!