RIP P.J. O'Rourke

[TheSportsPredictor]

P.J. O'Rourke, influential satirist and commentator, dies at 74

NY Post called him America's greatest satirist.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/p-j-orourke-was-americas-greatest-satirist-and-coolest-conservative/

 

[Neutral Corner]

Awww, ****. I hate this one. I loved that entire group that started the National Lampoon. I was a huge fan in the early 70's, then on through SNL, Animal House and on.

I wasn't much on his politics later in life, although I understood where he was coming from, but man, that guy could write.

Rest well, sir.

 

[swingline]

He now has plenty of time to document the Arkansas state law requiring at least one car up on blocks in every front yard.

 

[Slacker]

O'Rourke was a known drinker, and he was widely quoted as saying, "No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity."

 

[Neutral Corner]

"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."

 

[Neutral Corner]

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible. "

 

[Songbird]

This was probably the first time I'd heard of O'Rourke.

Bill Clinton: The Rolling Stone Interview

 

[Neutral Corner]

There's a P.J. O'Roarke quote that has stuck with me since, oh, I dunno, 1979 or '80. He was writing for "Car and Driver" magazine, which had a certain irreverent tone. He had picked up a Ferrari 308 convertible in Atlanta, and the assignment was to drive it across to Tuscaloosa on I-20 for the UGA-UA game and write about the experience. So here he is with an Italian sports car on a gloriously beautiful sunny fall morning, blasting along, flirting with carloads of coeds between cars. As he put it, "The only way I could have been any happier was if a had a sackful of Iranian radicals to drag behind the car."

That dates it, Iranian hostage crisis, so 1979-80 or just after.

 

[Neutral Corner]

P. J. O'Rourke, 1947-2022

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Back when Bill Maher was worth watching he was a great guest.

 

[CD Boogie]

Parents got me “Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut: Twenty-five Years of P.J. O'Rourke” in 1996 when i was at my first journalism job in Greenwich CT and in thrall to PJO’s Rolling Stone colleague Hunter S. Thompson, ostensibly political antipodes. Thompson loved O’Rourke, the kind of reasonable republican who holds positions and attitudes I actually used to truck with as a son of civic-minded and politically involved and elected parents. They would have treated Trump with the same disdain POJ did; he voted for Hillary Clinton as the much lesser of two evils — as did I.

ORourke was a great satirist and from most accounts a genuine gentleman. RIP

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Parents got me “Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut: Twenty-five Years of P.J. O'Rourke” in 1996 when i was at my first journalism job in Greenwich CT and in thrall to PJO’s Rolling Stone colleague Hunter S. Thompson, ostensibly political antipodes. Thompson loved O’Rourke, the kind of reasonable republican who holds positions and attitudes I actually used to truck with as a son of civic-minded and politically involved and elected parents. They would have treated Trump with the same disdain POJ did; he voted for Hillary Clinton as the much lesser of two evils — as did I.

ORourke was a great satirist and from most accounts a genuine gentleman. RIP

I was familiar with his writing, which was occasionally just fantastic, and never dull. His apparently exemplary personal character only became public with his obits, which sadly is too often the case. Then again, I don't suppose it's good pub for a satirist to be branded as a genuinely nice guy. Malice is supposed to be part of the bit.

 

[Neutral Corner]

He might have had a keen and barbed wit, but he was not malicious, and that's a fine line to walk.

 

[Slacker]

P. J. O'Rourke, 1947-2022

Geez, I wanted to read about P.J., not about the guy who says he is writing about P.J.

This is how not to write a tribute column to someone who has just passed. Blecchhhh!

 

[Azrael]

Try these:

P.J. O’Rourke Wrote With High, Cranky Style in a Shrinking Tradition

P.J. O’Rourke, Conservative Political Satirist, Dies at 74

Opinion | The Last Funny Conservative

Like Doug Kenney and Michael O'Donoghue, if you wrote humor of any kind in any medium anywhere in America over the last 50 years he was a subtle but powerful influence.