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RIP P.J. O’Rourke Dies: Satirist, Author & NPR Panelist Was 74

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Damn, he was a very very funny writer, made me laugh a bunch of times. So many great quotes:

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

If meat is murder, does that mean eggs are rape?

The 20th century was a test bed for big ideas - fascism, communism, the atomic bomb.

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them




P. J. O’Rourke, the political satirist, NPR panelist and bestselling author whose early work with National Lampoon included contributions to the influential Lemmings show, died today of lung cancer. He was 74.


His death was confirmed by his publisher Grove Atlantic, United Talent Agency and by Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me program. O’Rourke served as a regular panelist on the NPR program.


O’Rourke, who began his journalism career as a left-leaning Gonzo journalist before moving toward conservative libertarianism during the 1980s, wrote for such publications as Playboy, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, where he served for a time as foreign-affairs desk chief. In 1996, he was the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes.
 
I got to meet him briefly several years ago. Seemed like a very nice guy. His writing was wonderful.
 
RIP. That's sad.
 
Damn, he was a very very funny writer, made me laugh a bunch of times. So many great quotes:

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

If meat is murder, does that mean eggs are rape?

The 20th century was a test bed for big ideas - fascism, communism, the atomic bomb.

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them




P. J. O’Rourke, the political satirist, NPR panelist and bestselling author whose early work with National Lampoon included contributions to the influential Lemmings show, died today of lung cancer. He was 74.


His death was confirmed by his publisher Grove Atlantic, United Talent Agency and by Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me program. O’Rourke served as a regular panelist on the NPR program.


O’Rourke, who began his journalism career as a left-leaning Gonzo journalist before moving toward conservative libertarianism during the 1980s, wrote for such publications as Playboy, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, where he served for a time as foreign-affairs desk chief. In 1996, he was the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes.
:(
Sad to hear. I didn't run across his work often but when I did I enjoyed it.

Thought he should be older?
 
:(
Sad to hear. I didn't run across his work often but when I did I enjoyed it.

Thought he should be older?
I have every single issue of National Lampoon, on a DVD, funny stuff, amazingly funny, sick, awful, wrong stuff. He wrote a lot of it....
 
Possibly my favorite O'Rourke riff ...

“I was having dinner…in London…when eventually he got, as the Europeans always do, to the part about 'Your country’s never been invaded.' And so I said, 'Let me tell you who those bad guys are. They’re us. WE BE BAD. We’re the baddest-assed sons of bitches that ever jogged in Reeboks. We’re three-quarters grizzly bear and two-thirds car wreck and descended from a stock market crash on our mother’s side. You take your Germany, France, and Spain, roll them all together and it wouldn’t give us room to park our cars. We’re the big boys, Jack, the original, giant, economy-sized, new and improved butt kickers of all time. When we snort coke in Houston, people lose their hats in Cap d’Antibes. And we’ve got an American Express card credit limit higher than your piss-ant metric numbers go. You say our country’s never been invaded? You’re right, little buddy. Because I’d like to see the needle-dicked foreigners who’d have the guts to try. We drink napalm to get our hearts started in the morning. A rape and a mugging is our way of saying 'Cheerio.' Hell can’t hold our sock-hops.

We walk taller, talk louder, spit further, **** longer and buy more things than you know the names of. I’d rather be a junkie in a New York City jail than king, queen, and jack of all Europeans. We eat little countries like this for breakfast and shit them out before lunch.”

― P.J. O'Rourke, Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World's Worst Places and Asks, "What's Funny about This?"
 
Damn, he was a very very funny writer, made me laugh a bunch of times. So many great quotes:

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

If meat is murder, does that mean eggs are rape?

The 20th century was a test bed for big ideas - fascism, communism, the atomic bomb.

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them




P. J. O’Rourke, the political satirist, NPR panelist and bestselling author whose early work with National Lampoon included contributions to the influential Lemmings show, died today of lung cancer. He was 74.


His death was confirmed by his publisher Grove Atlantic, United Talent Agency and by Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me program. O’Rourke served as a regular panelist on the NPR program.


O’Rourke, who began his journalism career as a left-leaning Gonzo journalist before moving toward conservative libertarianism during the 1980s, wrote for such publications as Playboy, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, where he served for a time as foreign-affairs desk chief. In 1996, he was the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes.

I really enjoyed him, all the way from his days with NatLampCo till the very end.
I am a liberal and P.J. O'Rourke was one of my favorite connies.
 
Damn, he was a very very funny writer, made me laugh a bunch of times. So many great quotes:

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

If meat is murder, does that mean eggs are rape?

The 20th century was a test bed for big ideas - fascism, communism, the atomic bomb.

The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.

Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them




P. J. O’Rourke, the political satirist, NPR panelist and bestselling author whose early work with National Lampoon included contributions to the influential Lemmings show, died today of lung cancer. He was 74.


His death was confirmed by his publisher Grove Atlantic, United Talent Agency and by Peter Sagal, host of NPR’s Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me program. O’Rourke served as a regular panelist on the NPR program.


O’Rourke, who began his journalism career as a left-leaning Gonzo journalist before moving toward conservative libertarianism during the 1980s, wrote for such publications as Playboy, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone, where he served for a time as foreign-affairs desk chief. In 1996, he was the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes.

I became familiar with PJ firstly through Car & Driver, back in its David E. Davis days.

Back then, C&D had some awesome journalists. Shockingly good, given that it was automotive publication.
 
You know, I was not aware he was a Liberal earlier in his life.

Does anyone know if PJ wrote a book or essay on his progression from Liberal to Conservative? Krauthammer never got to do his bio, and I personally would find this kind of story, from quality writers like these two, to be fascinating.
 
You know, I was not aware he was a Liberal earlier in his life.

Does anyone know if PJ wrote a book or essay on his progression from Liberal to Conservative? Krauthammer never got to do his bio, and I personally would find this kind of story, from quality writers like these two, to be fascinating.

He wrote on that a lot. It's in Republican Party Animal, I think.
 
Seems he was a good judge of people too! RIP

"...In 2016, O’Rourke endorsed Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump in the US presidential election. He told The New Statesman in 2020: “Politics is a matter of least worst.
“She was the devil I knew – she was going to be another eight years of Obama, which we had endured. Donald Trump? I knew people who knew him. Nobody liked him. I just thought he was unstable … dangerous. I still do.” ..."
 
I first started reading his stuff when he wrote for "Car and Driver". I think he wrote an article where they several writers were testing off road vehicles on a Texas ranch. His vote for the best one was the land owners Cadillac that had the truck bed removed and filled with ice and beer.
 
You know, I was not aware he was a Liberal earlier in his life.

Does anyone know if PJ wrote a book or essay on his progression from Liberal to Conservative? Krauthammer never got to do his bio, and I personally would find this kind of story, from quality writers like these two, to be fascinating.


Back when he wrote for National Lampoon he was somewhat liberal but I wouldn't use that term on him, he was still very much an independent.
I think by the time Trump began making noises about running, he had already moved back to being something of an independent again.
 
RIP sir. (Sorry I missed this thread.)
 
I have every single issue of National Lampoon, on a DVD, funny stuff, amazingly funny, sick, awful, wrong stuff. He wrote a lot of it....

Do you think that DVD is still available somewhere?
I need it in my life.
 
Back when he wrote for National Lampoon he was somewhat liberal but I wouldn't use that term on him, he was still very much an independent.
I think by the time Trump began making noises about running, he had already moved back to being something of an independent again.
I remember when Carter was president, National Lampoon had his brother Billy reporting from Bang-the-Desk about the starving Bang-the Deskians. (Bangladesh)
 
Enjoy it, it will take you years to read. All on PDF, you can copy to other devices.

"Sweeney gulped. For months a certain Mr. DeRaymer from a collections agency had been calling with gradually increasing urgency and hostility..."

---Do you remember what that line is from?
I'll give you a hint, it ends up with "phone sex", only not the kind you think it is 😆😆😆😆
 
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