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PJ O’Rourke, ‘Gonzo’ journalist and satirist, dies aged 74

PJ O'Rourke, the American journalist and satirist, has died aged 74 after a battle with lung cancer.

The prolific author was known for his counterculture 'Gonzo' journalism which paved the way for a distinctive brand of conservative and libertarian commentary.

Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1947, Mr O’Rourke had a career which extended from serving as editor in chief of National Lampoon to frequent appearances on NPR's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Mourning his colleague last night, Peter Sagal, host of the NPR show, tweeted: “I'm afraid it's true. Our panellist and my dear friend PJ O'Rourke has passed away."

"He told the best stories. He had the most remarkable friends. And he devoted himself to them and his family in a way that would have totally ruined his shtick had anyone ever found out," Mr Sagal added.

Mr O'Rourke was an undergraduate at Miami University, and received a master's degree in English from Johns Hopkins University in 1970.

He started out writing for such underground publications as the New York Ace and joined National Lampoon in 1973, where his colleagues included Douglas Kenney, who later co-wrote Animal House and Caddyshack and with Mr O'Rourke edited the parody National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook.

O'Rourke, pictured in 2007, was a trailblazer for conservative and libertarian commentary - GETTY IMAGES

Over the following decades, he became a familiar presence as a writer and on-air pundit. He covered war and unrest everywhere from El Salvador to the Philippines, while mocking "the dictatorship of boredom" back home.

"In July 1988, I covered the specious, entropic, criminally trivial, boring, stupid Democratic National Convention, a numb suckhole stuffed with political bulk filler held in that place where bad malls go to die, Atlanta," reads a dispatch from Parliament of Whores, a bestseller published in 1991. 

"Then... I flew to that other oleo-high colonic, the Republican convention, an event with the intellectual content of a Guns N' Roses lyric."

Provided by The Telegraph O'Rourke at a book convention in Chicago in 2004. He died after a battle with lung cancer - AP

Like other longtime conservatives, Mr O'Rourke's loyalties were tested by the rise of Donald Trump.

Mr O'Rourke had little love for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, but he found he could live with her "lies and all her empty promises".

"It's the second worst thing that can happen to this country. But she's way behind in second place. I mean, she's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters," he said on NPR.

"I mean, this man (Trump) just can't be president," he said. "They've got this button, you know, in the briefcase. He's going to find it."

Reference: The Telegraph: Our Foreign Staff