The 68-year-old, who moved to Australia in the late 1970s but is still fondly remembered for his creation Fred Dagg, collapsed and died of natural causes while hiking in the Grampians National Park, Victoria, on Sunday.
``John died doing one of the things he loved the [most], taking photos of birds in beautiful bushland with his wife and friends.
``He is forever in our hearts,'' a family spokesman said.
``We are aware of what he has meant to so many for so many years, throughout the world but especially in Australia and New Zealand.
Prime Minister Bill English tweeted his sadness, while Labour leader Andrew Little said he was devastated by Clarke's death.
``He taught us to laugh at ourselves and more importantly laugh at our politicians.''
Clad in gumboots and a black singlet, Dagg was played with such conviction that to many New Zealanders, he was a real person.
But when Clarke relocated to Australia in search of creative greener pastures in the late 1970s, he took his cherished Kiwi icon with him.
He left with a sense of disillusionment stemming from a run-in with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.
``In a place the size of New Zealand there is only one game in town and if you are not allowed to do it, what can you do?'' Clarke said in a Listener interview in 1990.
``I dealt with directors who thought they were comic geniuses and regarded me as a hired hand.
``I have never had those problems in Australia.''
After settling in Melbourne, Clarke became such a hit on Australian television that cross-dressing comic Barry Humphries described him as ``Australia's best humourist''.
Clarke became known to many Australians for his five-minute satirical spots on Channel Nine's Friday news programme A Current Affair, the first of these appearing in 1989.
He also co-wrote ABCTV's The Fast Lane from 1983-85, as well as co-writing and appearing in ABCTV's The Gillies Report from 1985-86.
Clarke's film credits include Lonely Hearts (1981), Footrot Flats (1985), A Matter of Convenience (1987), Blood Oath (1989) and Death In Brunswick (1990).
Clarke was born in Palmerston North in 1948. He went to primary school there before attending Wellington's Scots College, after which he spent 14 months working on a shearing gang.
``My teachers mistook my indolence for rebellion and I was often caned.
``At one stage I held the world record.
``When I left secondary school I knew roughly what I knew when I left primary school, plus how to shave,'' Clarke said.
In between time spent on a law degree and bachelor of arts - completing neither - he performed in satirical revues while at Victoria University in Wellington.
On the revues he worked with ``some very talented people'' including Ginette McDonald, Tom Scott and ``a brilliantly funny young man, Paul Holmes''.
Bored after a year at the NZBC, Clarke went to London.
``When I left, my file said that I should not be employed under any circumstances whatsoever.''
From 1971-73, he ``swanned around'' Europe and held a lot of itinerant jobs in England before returning convinced that New Zealand was ready for satirical innovation.
The Fred Dagg character was born and promulgated between 1973 and 1977.
There were radio, TV and stage shows as well as record albums.
Although Fred Dagg became a runaway success, Clarke again fell foul of the NZBC.
``I was put off air once and prevented from making a series because someone said it didn't work.
``In the end I realised I would have to go to a country where I could explore more forms.''
Clarke also published books. Publications included A Complete Dagg in 1989, The Complete Book of Australian Verse in 1989 and Great Interviews of the 20th Century in 1990.
In 1973, he married Helen McDonald, with whom he had two daughters.
Tributes quickly began flowing in as news of Clarke's death spread.
