P J O’Rourke – skewering absurdity with wit

Satirist and journalist P.J. O’Rourke, regarded “one of the major voices of his generation”, has died. He was, unusually for a scurrilous wit, right wing but with no compunction about causing offence even to his own side, as he sought out  political irony, absurdity and hypocrisy. He was a Republican who mocked Republicans. “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work,” he wrote, “and then they get elected and prove it.”&nb