For­mer MP for Ca­roni East Dr Tim Gopeesingh has de­scribed Den­nis 'Spran­galang' Hall as a cul­tur­al icon on his Face­book site.

He said "I'm tru­ly sad­dened to hear of the pass­ing of lo­cal cul­tur­al icon Den­nis 'Spran­galang' Hall. I ex­press my deep­est con­do­lences to his wife, fam­i­ly, friends and loved ones.

"He blazed on­to the na­tion's cul­tur­al land­scape near­ly 40 years ago and changed the face of lo­cal com­e­dy and cul­ture in­deli­bly, and ul­ti­mate­ly, for the bet­ter.

"A true trail­blaz­er, this bril­liant son of a top for­mer na­tion­al ed­u­ca­tor cre­at­ed an al­ter ego of a com­i­cal 'Spranger'–a com­mon, some­what ubiq­ui­tous loafer in lo­cal par­lance–to reach the or­di­nary Trin­bag­on­ian man/woman."

He said through this im­mense­ly fun­ny, unique, lov­able and beloved 'Every Trin­i­Man' per­sona, Hall em­bod­ied satire, irony and crit­i­cal think­ing at its artis­tic best, via his hi­lar­i­ous, mem­o­rable and tru­ly en­dur­ing per­for­mances.

Gopeesingh said these were of­ten de­fined by his in­sight­ful so­cial and po­lit­i­cal cri­tiques stamped with his spe­cial­ly cre­at­ed catch­phras­es, many of which en­dured to this day as a de­fin­i­tive part of our Tri­ni di­alect.

He said in so do­ing, Hall spoke to the peo­ple in a voice all could tru­ly iden­ti­fy with and learn from, made more sig­nif­i­cant by the fact that it emerged dur­ing a time when preser­va­tion and pro­mo­tion of the or­di­nary man's na­tion­al voice was of para­mount im­por­tance to cit­i­zens' sig­nif­i­cant na­tion­al as­pi­ra­tions of tru­ly be­com­ing a unit­ed peo­ple and na­tion.

Gopeesingh said Spran­galang in­tro­duced an en­tire gen­er­a­tion of Trin­bag­o­ni­ans to satire, irony and crit­i­cal think­ing when it came to how they should view their cul­tur­al, po­lit­i­cal and so­cial land­scape, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing some of the worst so­cio-eco­nom­ic pe­ri­ods as a na­tion.

He said Hall reaf­firmed then and now that Trin­bag­on­ian's spe­cial and in­stinc­tive pen­chant for laugh­ter and pi­cong as a na­tion­al trait can tru­ly get them through any­thing they faced as a peo­ple.

Gopeesingh said his no­ble lega­cy to this end will en­dure for gen­er­a­tions to come.

De­scrib­ing Hall as a great, pi­o­neer­ing pa­tri­ot, he said he was owed a debt of eter­nal grat­i­tude for "shar­ing his great tal­ent and God-giv­en, un­matched wit, in­tel­li­gence and keen in­sight with cit­i­zens so faith­ful­ly through the decades."

Gopeesingh said, "May God grant com­fort to his wife and loved ones dur­ing this time of grief, and may his soul rest in eter­nal peace."