Legendary journalist and political satirist P.J. O’Rourke has died from lung most cancers issues on the age of 74.
The information was confirmed by his writer Grove Atlantic in a statement launched on Tuesday afternoon.
O’Rourke — a libertarian famed for his razor-sharp wit — notably skewered each Democrats and Republicans in print and on tv.
“Giving cash and energy to authorities is like giving whiskey and automobile keys to teenage boys,” O’Rourke famously wrote in 1991. He later described described the presidency of Barack Obama as “the Carter administration in higher sweaters.”
O’Rourke first gained nationwide consideration writing for humor journal the Nationwide Lampoon within the Nineteen Seventies, earlier than happening to pen items for Playboy, Vainness Honest and Rolling Stone. He additionally printed greater than a dozen best-selling books, together with 1987’s “Republican Party Reptile.”
O’Rourke later turned a fixture on late evening comedy reveals, and served as a reporter for “Actual Time with Invoice Maher.” Lately, he frequently appeared as a panelist on NPR’s in style quiz present “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me.”
This system’s host, Peter Sagal, confirmed his pal’s loss of life in a touching Twitter thread on Tuesday.
“I’m afraid it’s true. Our panelist and my pricey pal P.J. O’Rourke has handed away,” Sagal tweeted.
“It is rather uncommon in life to be a fan of somebody after which turn out to be their pal, however it occurred to me with PJ, and I found one thing exceptional,” he continued. “He advised the perfect tales. He had probably the most exceptional buddies. And he devoted himself to them and his household in a method that will have completely ruined his shtick had anybody ever came upon.”
Sagal poignantly added: “Like another individuals, it took him two tries to get marriage proper, so he leaves behind a spouse, Tina, and three youngsters who’re far too younger to lose their husband and father. His work was great. His coronary heart was even higher. I’ll miss him terribly.”
A stream of different public figures additionally paid tribute to O’Rourke, together with CNN’s Jake Tapper who wrote: “What a loss; nice man. My deepest condolences to his household and buddies.”
O’Rourke was born in Toledo, Ohio earlier than shifting to Miami for faculty within the Nineteen Sixties.
The author initially described himself as “a leftist anti-war hippie” earlier than present process a political re-awakening and changing into a outstanding proponent of libertarianism.
Like his modern Hunter S. Thompson, O’Rourke was a proponent of “gonzo journalism” — a mode of reportage with out claims of objectivity, which regularly consists of the journalist as a part of the story.
He printed 19 books in whole, together with his most up-to-date best-seller “Cry from the Far Center: Dispatches from a Divided Land,” launched in 2020.
O’Rourke is survived by his spouse, Tina, and their three youngsters.
