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Remembering P.J. O’Rourke
O’Rourke had a unique ability to blend humor and intellect without deliberately trying to seek laughs or cheapen what he was trying to articulate.
O’Rourke had a unique ability to blend humor and intellect without deliberately trying to seek laughs or cheapen what he was trying to articulate.
By Carpe Diem
February 24, 2023
Ayear ago, this past week, we lost one of the funniest, wisest, and keenest intellectuals of the conservative movement. Whether it was his irreverent commentary on the utter absurdity of the modern progressive Left and their idiotic socialist schemes, his apt descriptions about his travels to warzones and impoverished Third-World hellscapes, his hilarious observations about ignorant pampered college students and their woke grievances, or his whimsical musings about philosophy and life in general, no one was more entertaining to read than P.J. O’Rourke, who passed away last February at the age of 74.
For O’Rourke, no topic or politician was off limits. He authored more than 12 best-selling books and became famous for his satirical pieces at National Lampoon in the 1970s. He would later write for Playboy, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and the American Spectator. Although the young O’Rourke famously described himself as “a leftist anti-war hippie,” for much of his life he identified as a libertarian.
Perhaps no single self-aggrandizing leftist found himself on the receiving end of O’Rourke’s jokes more often than Al Gore. And for good reason. Anyone who has listened to that grifter pontificate about “global warming” for the last quarter century, or “climate change,” or whatever they call it these days knows Gore is an unserious person. His recent shriek attack at Davos only further confirmed that he is well deserving of whatever mockery comes at his expense.
O’Rourke facetiously “dedicated” one of his national best sellers to Gore for providing him with such good material. Writing in the acknowledgments of All The Trouble in The World, O’Rourke noted “this book also required an enormous amount of help from enemies. Particularly, I’d like to thank Vice President Al Gore for being the perfect straw man on such subjects as the environment, ecology, and population. Sorry, Al for repeatedly calling you a fascist twinkie and intellectual dolt. It’s nothing personal. I just think you have repulsive totalitarian inclinations and the brains of a King Charles spaniel.”
Maybe Gore is useful for something after all.
O’Rourke was also a master at pointing out how ridiculous, cruel, and economically illiterate the Left’s confiscatory taxation schemes of taking from Peter to pay Paul really are, writing as only he could:
Remembering P.J. O’Rourke › American Greatness
A year ago, this past week, we lost one of the funniest, wisest, and keenest intellectuals of the conservative movement. Whether it was his irreverent commentary on the utter absurdity of the modern…
amgreatness.com
Sorely missed
Indeed
