Has quit this mortal coil. Lung cancer related at the age of 74.
One of the funniest writers I’ve read, and one of the most skillful. I got Republican Party Reprile when I were but a lad, and I giggled like a loon when I read it. I giggled when I reread it later in life, but I appreciated the art in his writing, especially the way that he was telling his view of thr truth but masking it with witticism.
It was,, of course, a very simplified view of conservatism, and one that reflected a view of AMerica and its potential that obviously not everyone could get to. But on a certain level, there was a kernel of truth in what he wrote.
And what a life. National Lampoon, inspiring Animal House, Rolling Stone, countless books…
I’ve been sniffling for much of the day as I’ve been reading the inevitable twitter comments and tributes, as well as the longer form tributes. He seems to have been a genuinely good man, and much loved by all who came into his orbit. Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell me posted this letter he got from O’Rourke: https://twitter.com/petersagal/status/1493782319693324296s=20&t=G8qGmTw3R6tK1uOUuxqOQQ
There are countless others as well, including people who testify to the fact that he treated everyone, at every level of the foodchain, well.
There aren;t very many “good” conservatives left any more, and I think we just lost one of them. He just happened to be a very funny man as well.
Lost touch with him a bit in later years but his stuff with Nat Lamp in the 70s plus RRR and a fair few of his books thereafter were very, very funny indeed.
RIP PJ
I read a lot of his stuff in the 70’s and 80’s and found it very funny. I believe he went through a divorce at one time that was quite acrimonious I guess like most of us. Talking about the chance of future happiness he said something along the lines of ‘don’t bother getting married just but her a house and be done with the heartache’.
I may be misremembering, but I think he was in Word’s Word to he Wise column once, and the piece of advice which sticks in my mind is ‘marry your second wife first’.
Always remembered that, especially when I was in a lawyer’s office discussing separation terms ….
I wish I’d married neither of them!
Whenever I read or hear the word ‘laconic’, I think of this guy. My own exposure to his thinking is limited to articles read across the years and a few interviews I’ve seen; always thought provoking and realistic. I think I ought to investigate some of his longer form work. Gaspers 1, PJ nil. RIP.
Did he used to have. TV show in the UK or did I dream it? There’s no mention of it on his Wikipedia page, but I’m sure he had a series on something like what it’s like being an American in the UK. And I’m not talking about his TV ads!
He did what few right wing humourists manage for a lefty/liberal type like me – made me laugh – and often conveyed ideas a lot more sensible that the bile we get from the conservative press in the UK.
He is one of the few right wing commentators to change my view of something as an adult.
And was very funny.
All of the above. RPR was good, as was ‘Holidsys in Hell’, and “all the trouble in the world”. He was right about Trump. I look forward to whatever his final take is on the Orange Idiot (and those who love him).
He was one of the very best. And actually, his staunch Reaganomics conservatism – which looked super reactionary to me 20 years ago – seems pretty moderate by 2022 standards. A bit like I’d kill to have the 80s Tories in charge compared to the current lot, I’d kill for almost any of our political writers to have half the talent and humanity of PJO’R. A really good egg, and simultaneously hilarious and truly serious.
Thanks for this – everything I wanted to say.
Except for…
“Even more important than being drunk, however, is having the right car. You have to get a car that handles really well. This is extremely important, and there’s a lot of debate on this subject – about what kind of car handles best. Some say a front-engined car; some say a rear-engined car. I say a rented car. Nothing handles better than a rented car. You can go faster, turn corners sharper, and put the transmission into reverse while going forward at a higher rate of speed in a rented car than in any other kind. You can also park without looking, and can use the trunk as an ice chest. Another thing about a rented car is that it’s an all-terrain vehicle. Mud, snow, water, woods – you can take a rented car anywhere. True, you can’t always get it back – but that’s not your problem, is it?”
Don’t return it? Don’t do that if you rented from Hertz. You’ll end up in prison!
and also, “There are three billion Chinese. And they all want a Chrysler”.
It’s all been said really but I adored him for a while back then. It was the humour with which he said things you thought you probably disagreed with. I remember a line – well I say that, I bet I can’t recall it properly now – that made me actually fall off my bed laughing. It was about someone unexpectedly handing him a chicken in some Latin American backwater, and the entire village dissolving into hilarity “Because apparently I was the nerdiest chicken-handler anyone had ever seen.”
Facebook followers of our erstwhile colleague the Orthodontal Onanist Lenny Law can see the letter PJ wrote him, commending the work of Dave Barry (because he doesn’t say ‘fuck you’) and promising to look Lenny up if he was ever in Portsmouth. I guess he never made it.
I read National Lampoon avidly back in the 70’s/80’s and PJ wrote probably the greatest/most offensive piece in the magazine’s history…
“Foreigners from Around the World”
I always regretted he never wrote a few extra paragraphs in the story skewering Americans, but then he would have had to change the title. He piles into the English, Scots, Canadians, Irish and a bunch of others.
I am Australian and we did not miss his scorn. His piece on us begins with the words, “Violently loud alcoholic roughnecks…” and gets progressively nastier as it continues.
These are his description of the proper form of address when meeting an Aussie, not “G’day” or even “Hello” or “How do you do” but…
“Steady there!”
“Cool off!”
“For Christ’s sake not in the sink!”
“Stay back I’ve got a gun!”
I have attached a link, you may have to copy and paste into your browser. It’s not for those prone to be offended as it’s mighty offensive and was back in the mid-70’s as well.
I forwarded it once to a much younger than me Irish co-worker (we’d been discussing political correctness) and his two word summary after reading it was a disbelieving, “Fucking hell.”
I wasn’t expecting that. This hopefully works
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/5139067
Bloody hell – that hasn’t stood up well…
I’ve never heard of this PJ O’Rourke fella, but bloody hell indeed! “Good conservative”, “one of the best”, “I adored him”? Seems like an utterly abhorrent person from that article.
Ouch indeed. (Quietly shelves equivalent paean of quite liking some of the cuts of his jib…….)
The tag says it’s a ‘satirical piece mocking racism’.
In the UK we would have made him Prime Minister.
“Hilarious” 70s humour!
There was a time when it was acceptable to respect people you disagreed with. It meant that other opinions were possible and might be held by people with talent and humour. Now of course it’s impossible to imagine that intelligence might exist across different perspectives, and the way we tell ourselves we are right is by telling ourselves that everyone else is wrong.
Like I said, I know absolutely nothing about O’Rourke. He “seems like an utterly abhorrent person from that article“. Yeah, I’ll stand by that. He might not be, of course. He might well be everything you say above, and the contrast between what you say and the article is understandably surprising to someone like me who knows zilch about him. I found that type of humour – acceptable in the seventies – shocking, like I imagine a lot of people nowadays do. Shocking that it was acceptable in the seventies. My gripe is with the vulgar, racist humour of that article, not the man I know nothing about.
And why you be jumping on your high horse for anyway, I’d like to know? The article’s horrible and you know it. And you know full well I can’t respect or disrespect a fella I’ve never heard of, much less imagine his intelligence. Except from the aforementioned article. These things are, like, obvs.
And also, while you’re here, where do you stand on women taking their husband’s surname on marriage? Delightful and harmless tradition or evidence of acquiescence to the dominance of the male patriarchy?
PJ was one of the funniest writers ever, standing alongside the likes of Woodhouse, Thurber and O’Brien. With the benefit of 40 years hindsight, the article above remains as ill-judged and offensive as it was back then. He was obviously (?) trying to satirise social prejudice but got it horribly wrong. He was a staunch conservative, with some hard-to-defend right-wing views but he was no racist.
A very useful book, but not particularly funny. Perhaps it’s just me.
Damn autocorrect…. Although Barbara shoving a carrot up a poodle’s arse before introducing the poor wee mutt to a donkey was rather amusing.
Really? …. Come to think of it, I had thought that the casserole wasn’t up to her usual standard
These snowflake boomers don’t half get upset when someone criticises their favourite writer. Maybe this thread should’ve been designated a safe space for PJ O’Rourke Stans, with appropriate trigger warnings.
The whole point of Gary’s defence of his initial “I don’t know anything about him but this guy seems abhorrent” stance is that he’s not criticising the writer at all. Isn’t it?
My “defence”of “my stance”? What a bizzarre world you seem to inhabit.
Bloke I’ve nevet heard of writes article I don’t like and I say so. That’s all. You can ignore my opinion, you can say why you disagree with it, or you can get all pompous, accusatory and sarcastic. It’s all good.
How would you react if you came across the same article written by one Buster Fudgepacket, I wonder?
Hey – the Passive/Aggressive thread is thattaway 👉
He’s ignoring it – let him, that’s fine.
Totes fair comment.
Think that’s bad, wait till you read George Bernard Shaw, William Beveridge, John Maynard Keynes and, back in the day, The Guardian and the New Statesman, on eugenics.
“The only fundamental and possible socialism is the socialisation of the selective breeding of man”
G.B. Shaw
…then there’s that Jonathan Swift bloke who said that we should eat babies. What a monster! dig him up and hang him!
Sadistic as it sounds, your proposal is far too modest for the likes of Jonathan Swift, M
How about that William Faulkner, eh? Murder your Darlings? Should been banged up for that one
JM Barrie in the conservatory with the lead pipe!
And Bernard Manning, if he’s dead. His satire was right popular.
Him and Mear One.
I don’t know O’Rourke’s writing, but from time to time this kind of thing comes up – how do you know if something is a satire or the think it is supposed to be satirising? I think it was Miles Kington who once said that he turned on the radio and heard two elderly women creakily singing dated palm court songs, and it was painful. Then the announcer said it was Hinge and Bracket, a comedy drag act who performed in this style, and he realised it was supposed to be an amusing parody. But does knowing the context make that performance less awful or O’Rourke’s writing less racist?
I’ve no idea really, but artists can’t control the response to their work. Johnny Speight always thought he was mocking Alf Garnett’s attitudes, but I’ve known people who were at school in the sixties and seventies say that Til death us to part increased the amount of racist language in the playground.
As the old saying goes, “one man’s witty, biting satire is another man’s ugly, racist vulgarity”.
Bit like Al Murray. The Pub Landlord was meant to be a parody but he ended up filling arenas with the type of people he was purportedly satirising.
I abhorred his political take on pretty much everything *then* as now, but unlike most reactionaries, he was funny & he could definitely write. That made reading what he purported to advocate ( true or not) frequently entertaining.
I always enjoyed his anecdote about calling his old school Republican father from college & declaring ‘Dad, I’m a Maoist now’ to which came the reply ‘That’s fine, PJ, as long as you never tell me you’ve become a Democrat’.
Very amusing Junglejim.
I certainly have fond memories of P..J. It’s no small thing when the comments of someone whose views you actually disagree with can you make you smile and even laugh. Fat chance of that in 2022.
Time for a little nostalgia.
Would it be fair to categorise O’Rourke as America’s Jeremy Clarkson?
Not at all. He’s not a lads-lads-lads populist tabloid boor the way Clarkson’s public persona is. I don’t think anyone with any sense would look to defend the 70s thing above – it’s clearly meant as a satire of racism, published in a left-leaning mag, but plays horribly to modern eyes – but it’s not at all typical of him.
I think Clarkson is probably a lot brighter and less boorish IRL than in public, but as a writer / TV personality he’s one-note attempted-everyman, with no nuance or political conviction. A hack, really, like a much less insane Littlejohn. Not untalented, but still a hack.
That’s not PJO’R’s style at all. They’re not really even trying to do the same thing. Holidays in Hell, Give War A Chance, Parliament of Whores – those are the real thing. Clarkson couldn’t write like that in ten lifetimes. I really recommend them. Hilarious, but incredibly humane, intelligent and serious-minded.
I may seek out a few articles cheers
Totally agree HP.
There is a real brain at work with O’ Rourke & as well as being funny, he was more than able to outline a coherent political philosophy – even if you utterly disagreed with it.
That’s pretty much the diametric opposite of Clarkson, who when you boil it all down is just a wanker, who’d shit himself if someone who could hit back stepped up to him. His best lines to camera are almost all courtesy of writers ( including D Baker Esq. ) who take the dosh on the understanding that they remain uncredited & thus JC comes over as a wit.
You mean… people in the entertainment industry deliver jokes they haven’t written themselves? And don’t give the writer credit? In showbiz? I find that very hard to believe.
Shocking, isn’t it?
I think the salient point is that Clarkson’s ‘brand’ (ugh!) is that his persona is *him* & his fans actually think he’s a wag.
O’ Rourke by contrast was a writer first & foremost & ‘personality’ second, & without doubt could hold sway in pretty much any company, because he had more than a modicum of substance.
Clarkson not so much. An arsehole with a schtick.
How the feck come I’ve never heard of this guy and everyone else has? I’ll definitely have to check him out now.
Start with Let England Shake, that’s the best one.
Also I think towards the end he’d stopped doing that thing where he split his trousers.
You’re forgetting this
Watch us rock the cigar
Watch us rock the cigar
Watch us rock the cigar…
….sike
Jeremy Clarkson is the writer P J O’Rouke could have been…
How I wish we were considering Clarkson’s legacy today…