P. J. O'Rourke
Encyclopedia
Patrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke (born November 14, 1947) is an American
political satirist
, journalist
, writer
, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken
Research Fellow at the Cato Institute
and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly
, The American Spectator
, and The Weekly Standard
, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
. In the United Kingdom
, he is known as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways
in the 1990s, as well as two appearances on the comedy panel show Have I Got News for You
in 1995 and 2004 respectively.
He is the author of 16 books, of which his latest, Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards, was released in September 2010. This was preceded in 2009 by Driving Like Crazy. According to a 60 Minutes
profile, he is also the most quoted living man in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations.
. O'Rourke did his undergraduate work at Miami University
, in Ohio, and earned an M.A. in English at Johns Hopkins University
. He recounts that during his student days he was a left
-leaning hippie
, but that in the 1970s his political views underwent a volte-face
. He emerged as a political observer and humorist with libertarian
viewpoints.
O'Rourke wrote articles for several publications, including The Rip Off Review of Western Culture
an underground magazine/comic book in 1972, entitled A.J. at N.Y.U. and also for the Baltimore underground newspaper Harry
and the New York Ace
, before joining National Lampoon in 1973, where he served as managing editor among other roles and authored articles such as "Foreigners Around the World." He received a writing credit for National Lampoon's Lemmings
which helped launch the careers of John Belushi
, Chevy Chase
and Christopher Guest
. He also co-wrote National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook with Douglas Kenney
. O'Rourke said later that Kenney brought comedy to the piece and he brought the organization. The Yearbook was a bestseller and some themes were later used in the movie Animal House.
Going freelance
in 1981, O'Rourke began publishing in magazines such as Playboy
, Vanity Fair
, Car and Driver
, and Rolling Stone
. He became foreign-affairs desk chief at Rolling Stone, where he remained until 2001. In 1996, he served as the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes
.
O'Rourke was married to Amy Lumet, a daughter of movie director Sidney Lumet
and a granddaughter of Lena Horne
, from 1990 to 1993. Since 1995 he has been married to his second wife, Tina, and they have two daughters, Elizabeth and Olivia, and one son, Clifford. O'Rourke splits his time between the small town of Sharon
, New Hampshire
, and Washington, D.C.
O'Rourke has published 16 books, including three New York Times bestsellers. Parliament of Whores
and Give War a Chance reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List
. O'Rourke was a "Real Time Real Reporter" for Real Time with Bill Maher
covering the 2008 Presidential Election
.
O'Rourke revealed on September 28, 2008, that he has been diagnosed with treatable anal cancer
, from which he can expect "a 95% chance of survival." His announcement is typical of his writing in that it handled a very serious subject within his humorous style.
On October 7 2011, PJ O'Rorke appeared with former Congressman Alan Grayson, Richard Trumka, Jonatan Franzen and Nicolle Wallace on the HBO political talk and humor show Real Time with Bill Maher, to discuss Occupy Wall Street. In a clip that subsequently went viral, O'Rorke said to Grayson, "you passed Economics?" in a sarcastic tone. Alan Grayson said "I was an economist for three years", to which O'Rorke replied, "oh, you were the graduate student who flunked me!", to which Grayson replied, "I would have".
Grayson then reeled off a set of statistics which, he claimed, showed how the middle class is being destroyed by the wealthy. O'Rorke replied "get the bongo drums" and with a comment about the personal hygiene of Occupy Wall Street protesters. Grayson replied with further numbers and received a standing ovation. Most replicators of the viral video clearly felt that O'Rorke had been humiliated on-air, but others claim that he's always been funnier on print, and that his health problems probably affected his performance on Maher's program.
; one of his earliest and best-regarded pieces was "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink", a National Lampoon article in March 1979. The article was republished in two of his books, Republican Party Reptile (1987) and Driving Like Crazy (2009).
O'Rourke has described himself as a libertarian
. He has sarcastically proposed two other
American political parties: one for those with his mixture of views, another for those who hold the opposite mixture.
O'Rourke types his manuscripts on an IBM Selectric
typewriter
, though denies that he is a Luddite
, asserting that his short attention span would make focusing on writing on a computer difficult. In a January 2007 interview, O'Rourke gave an example of his view of computers and writing by referencing novelist Stephen King
, whom he paraphrased - saying had he a computer he could have written three times as much in his early days. To which O'Rourke remarked, "Does the world need three times as many Cujo
s? Three times as many Jane Austen
s, maybe."
Americans
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
political satirist
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, journalist
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, writer
Writing
Writing is the representation of language in a textual medium through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and non-symbolic preservation of language via non-textual media, such as magnetic tape audio.Writing most likely...
, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken
H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
Research Fellow at the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, The American Spectator
The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
, and The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States, internationally on NPR Worldwide and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member...
. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, he is known as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
in the 1990s, as well as two appearances on the comedy panel show Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
in 1995 and 2004 respectively.
He is the author of 16 books, of which his latest, Don't Vote, It Just Encourages the Bastards, was released in September 2010. This was preceded in 2009 by Driving Like Crazy. According to a 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
profile, he is also the most quoted living man in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations.
Life and career
P.J. O'Rourke was born in Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
. O'Rourke did his undergraduate work at Miami University
Miami University
Miami University is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded four years after Ohio University. In its 2012 edition, U.S...
, in Ohio, and earned an M.A. in English at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
. He recounts that during his student days he was a left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
-leaning hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
, but that in the 1970s his political views underwent a volte-face
Volte-face
Volte-face is a total change of position, as in policy or opinion; an about-face.The expression comes through French, from Italian voltafaccia and Portuguese volte face, composed of volta and faccia ....
. He emerged as a political observer and humorist with libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
viewpoints.
O'Rourke wrote articles for several publications, including The Rip Off Review of Western Culture
The Rip Off Review of Western Culture
Rip Off Review Of Western Culture was an underground comic magazine based in San Francisco, California. There were three issues in 1972. The publication was historically significant in that it brought together the work of many noteworthy underground artists and writers.-History:The Rip Off Review...
an underground magazine/comic book in 1972, entitled A.J. at N.Y.U. and also for the Baltimore underground newspaper Harry
Harry (newspaper)
Harry was an underground newspaper founded and edited by Michael Carliner and published biweekly in Baltimore, Maryland from 1969 to 1970. A total of 22 issues were published, with an average circulation of 6,000 to 8,000 copies. P. J. O'Rourke was a regular contributor and one of its editors...
and the New York Ace
New York Ace
New York Ace was an underground newspaper founded in New York City in late 1971 by ex-East Village Other staffers to fill the void created by the demise of the EVO. Ace was published by 21 year old Rex Weiner and edited by 18 year old Bob Singer. Staffers included P.J. O'Rourke, Tom Forcade, A.J....
, before joining National Lampoon in 1973, where he served as managing editor among other roles and authored articles such as "Foreigners Around the World." He received a writing credit for National Lampoon's Lemmings
National Lampoon's Lemmings
National Lampoon's Lemmings, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1973 stage show which helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Chevy Chase. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people including Sean Kelly...
which helped launch the careers of John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
, Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
and Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest , better known as Christopher Guest, is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor and comedian. He is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in several improvisational "mockumentary" films that...
. He also co-wrote National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook with Douglas Kenney
Douglas Kenney
Douglas C. Kenney was an American writer and actor who co-founded National Lampoon magazine in 1970. Kenney edited the magazine and wrote much of its early material.-Childhood:...
. O'Rourke said later that Kenney brought comedy to the piece and he brought the organization. The Yearbook was a bestseller and some themes were later used in the movie Animal House.
Going freelance
Freelancer
A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...
in 1981, O'Rourke began publishing in magazines such as Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, Car and Driver
Car and Driver
Car and Driver is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. Its total circulation is 1.31 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011...
, and Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. He became foreign-affairs desk chief at Rolling Stone, where he remained until 2001. In 1996, he served as the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
.
O'Rourke was married to Amy Lumet, a daughter of movie director Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict...
and a granddaughter of Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, from 1990 to 1993. Since 1995 he has been married to his second wife, Tina, and they have two daughters, Elizabeth and Olivia, and one son, Clifford. O'Rourke splits his time between the small town of Sharon
Sharon, New Hampshire
Sharon is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 352 at the 2010 census.-History:Settled in 1738, Sharon was originally a part of Peterborough...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
O'Rourke has published 16 books, including three New York Times bestsellers. Parliament of Whores
Parliament of Whores
Parliament of Whores is an international best-selling political humor book by P. J. O'Rourke published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1991. Subtitled "A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire US Government", Parliament is a scathing critique of the American system of governance from a right...
and Give War a Chance reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List
New York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
. O'Rourke was a "Real Time Real Reporter" for Real Time with Bill Maher
Real Time with Bill Maher
Real Time with Bill Maher is a talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous show, Politically Incorrect on ABC , Real Time features a panel of guests that discuss current events in politics and the media...
covering the 2008 Presidential Election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
.
O'Rourke revealed on September 28, 2008, that he has been diagnosed with treatable anal cancer
Anal cancer
Anal cancer is a type of cancer which arises from the anus, the distal orifice of the gastrointestinal tract. It is a distinct entity from the more common colorectal cancer. The etiology, risk factors, clinical progression, staging, and treatment are all different. Anal cancer is typically a...
, from which he can expect "a 95% chance of survival." His announcement is typical of his writing in that it handled a very serious subject within his humorous style.
On October 7 2011, PJ O'Rorke appeared with former Congressman Alan Grayson, Richard Trumka, Jonatan Franzen and Nicolle Wallace on the HBO political talk and humor show Real Time with Bill Maher, to discuss Occupy Wall Street. In a clip that subsequently went viral, O'Rorke said to Grayson, "you passed Economics?" in a sarcastic tone. Alan Grayson said "I was an economist for three years", to which O'Rorke replied, "oh, you were the graduate student who flunked me!", to which Grayson replied, "I would have".
Grayson then reeled off a set of statistics which, he claimed, showed how the middle class is being destroyed by the wealthy. O'Rorke replied "get the bongo drums" and with a comment about the personal hygiene of Occupy Wall Street protesters. Grayson replied with further numbers and received a standing ovation. Most replicators of the viral video clearly felt that O'Rorke had been humiliated on-air, but others claim that he's always been funnier on print, and that his health problems probably affected his performance on Maher's program.
Writing
O'Rourke was an early proponent of Gonzo journalismGonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style...
; one of his earliest and best-regarded pieces was "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink", a National Lampoon article in March 1979. The article was republished in two of his books, Republican Party Reptile (1987) and Driving Like Crazy (2009).
O'Rourke has described himself as a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
. He has sarcastically proposed two other
Two-party system
A two-party system is a system where two major political parties dominate voting in nearly all elections at every level of government and, as a result, all or nearly all elected offices are members of one of the two major parties...
American political parties: one for those with his mixture of views, another for those who hold the opposite mixture.
O'Rourke types his manuscripts on an IBM Selectric
IBM Selectric typewriter
The IBM Selectric typewriter was a highly successful model line of electric typewriters introduced by IBM on July 31, 1961.Instead of the "basket" of individual typebars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page in a traditional typewriter, the Selectric had a type element that rotated and...
typewriter
Typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with keys that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper. Typically one character is printed per keypress, and the machine prints the characters by making ink impressions of type elements similar to the pieces...
, though denies that he is a Luddite
Neo-luddism
Neo-Luddism is a personal world view opposing any modern technology. Its name is based on the historical legacy of the British Luddites which were active between 1811 and 1816...
, asserting that his short attention span would make focusing on writing on a computer difficult. In a January 2007 interview, O'Rourke gave an example of his view of computers and writing by referencing novelist Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, whom he paraphrased - saying had he a computer he could have written three times as much in his early days. To which O'Rourke remarked, "Does the world need three times as many Cujo
Cujo
Cujo is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. The novel won the British Fantasy Award in 1982, and was made into a film in 1983....
s? Three times as many Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
s, maybe."
External links
- PJ O'Rourke delivers the National Press Club Address
- Transcript (and Video) ABC 7:30 Report: An Audience with PJ O'Rourke
- P. J. O'Rourke's Official Website in 2004
- The Unofficial P.J. O'Rourke Admiration Site
- P.J. on The Hour
- P.J. O'Rourke gives Daniel Webster College 2007 Commencement Address
- Articles at The Atlantic
- Articles at the Cato InstituteCato InstituteThe Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
- Articles at the Weekly Standard
- British Airways advertisement with P.J. O'Rourke
- Conservative Comedy Q&A session with Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, April 2009 - Driving Like Crazy book talk at the Cato InstituteCato InstituteThe Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
, June 2009 - Why Voting Just Encourages Politicians discusses his research at The Commonwealth ClubThe Commonwealth ClubThis article concerns the historic Virginia building. For other places called "Commonwealth Club", see Commonwealth Club.The Commonwealth Club, is a private gentlemen's club in Richmond, Virginia, USA. Its present clubhouse was completed in 1891. The defining structure of the Commonwealth Club...
, September 2010