Oh man, I loved his writing when I was a younger man (it’s probably been a good twenty years since I’ve read anything by him). I may not have particularly agreed with his politics, but he wasn’t afraid to skewer anyone (including himself) with his wit. I also appreciated that even as he was visiting and reporting on some poor, dysfunctional countries, he never argued that the people there were somehow deficient or “deserved” it.
RIP, PJ.
I’ll always remember him for this magazine cover.
I love the story of how the photographer got that expression on the dog:
The hand model pulled the trigger on an empty chamber. The dog flinched at the sound.
“Wrong within normal parameters” has become one of my bedrock political aphorisms. It so perfectly sums up what I’m looking for in political opponents.
I’m not proposing to debate it here but yes despite my obvious personal biases I still tend to think that objectively conservatives just generally aren’t as funny as progressives.
PJ O’Rourke was the exception. I found his early stuff laugh out loud funny. While - as many others here have said - disagreeing with his conclusions.
I have been a big fan of P.J. every since early Lampoon days. I always thought of him as a clever and aware writer, never as a conservative. He poked intelligent fun at anyone and everyone.
John Hughes wrote it, actually.
You may be thinking of the high school yearbook parody [with its classic cover] that he co-authored (https://www.amazon.com/Original-National-Lampoon-School-Yearbook/dp/0930368355) some material of which ended up in “Animal House.”
Right you are. I knew that it was Hughes at one point in my life but I conflated it with PJ’s other stuff.
And I still have my 1964 HS yearbook from Dacron! Along with the Dacron sunday newspaper
For a presentation once, I named a fake patient “Dwight Mannsburden”. I think it was PJ who portrayed him in the yearbook?
I’ll have to find my copy. I think with makeup and wardrobe they portrayed several people. Wasn’t he the school nurse in there, holding an enema bag? Too funny!
IIRC I stumbled across P.J. here and there in the 80s…Car and Driver, Rolling Stone? A very good writer.
Some of his O’Rourke’s earlier books were funny. Never found him sidesplitting - but he could be clever and was self-deprecating. A bit like Erma Bombeck or Dave Barry, perhaps. The Lampoon was before my time but what I have seen was just okay.
Good read RIP
Very sad to hear this.
I have several of his books on my shelves, but I haven’t read him in years. I always enjoyed him on Wait, Wait-- it was always funny to me how open and accepting he was about having such differing political views from the rest of the panelists. During the time that Dick Cheney was catching shit for shooting his friend in the face during a hunt he said something I admired which I can’t quote accurately and I am too lazy to look up. The gist was:
You are missing the point! We (the right) have a guy who shot a lawyer in the face and the lawyer apologized to the shooter. When the Democratic Party has someone who has shot a lawyer in the face I may start to respect you again!
Apparently he was a serious journalist at one time, I recall reading him describe what it was like in Iran during the hostage situation (which shows he had more balls than I could have mustered back then). I liked his stories about Sandusky; I seem to recall him describing it the way I remember my hometown being thirty or forty years ago-- big enough to be recognized nationally, but small enough to have a serious inferiority complex.
He claimed that it was perfectly natural to be liberal as a child and to grow more conservative over time as you owned more shit. That turns out to be the opposite of my journey but I am happy to remember that he and I had overlapping ideologies at one time years ago.
Rest in peace sir, we are all a bit poorer for having lost you.
They did a 39th anniversary edition nobody knows about. It’s basically the ending of Animal House, what happened to all the teachers and students after they graduated.
I just sold a copy of one of this books. So, THAT explains it!
RIP, Mr. O’Rourke. I always enjoyed his essays in Rolling Stone, too.
Is that the origin of the phrase?
I often remark to my wife that there are very few situations that don’t merit a quote from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” “A Christmas Story,” or P. J. O’Rourke.
One of my bookshelves is filled with nothing but P. J. O’Rourke and Wendy Kaminer.
I read a lot of National Lampoon from the late 70s to mid 80s*, so I have fond memories of both PJ and John Hughes (though I often forget who wrote what). I also enjoyed PJ on WWDTM. But the quote about Hillary is what really sticks with me. RIP PJ.
* One of my biggest regrets is from several years ago when I was cleaning out the basement and threw out a box of about five years worth of NatLamps, thinking “I never read these, why keep them?” There are so many times I’d like to go back and read an article or find a cartoon…
I kept all mine, have them still. Beginning with the “If you don’t buy this magazine we’ll kill this dog” cover.
Or a particular ad.
I have a two-disk CD of all the issues. Don’t know if they still sell them or what format it’s in, though.