The Funny Stuff: The Official P.J. O’Rourke Quotationary and Riffapedia

This hit-or-miss collection of witticisms contends that political satirist O’Rourke (A Cry from the Far Middle), who died in 2022, was “the most quoted man on the planet.” Assembled by former Rolling Stone editor McDonnell (The Accidental Life), the compendium draws from O’Rourke’s copious output to lampoon such subjects as “Committee Brain,” the “Security-and-Surveillance State,” Europe, and American leftists: “Enormous differences in income, wealth, and power push people toward communism. And maybe so, but the only people it pushed toward communism in America were sixties college students who already had income, wealth, and power—or at least their fathers did.” Also ridiculed are Donald Trump’s intelligence, “efficiency experts,” and U.S. foreign policy: “Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government do it to somebody else.” Unfortunately, the bon mots (“You’re only allowed to have real ideas if it’s absolutely guaranteed that you can’t win an election”; “Americans are remarkably puritanical—when they aren’t high as kites”) are outnumbered by out-of-date duds (“There’s a sign on the door at most New York investment banks: No Shirt, No Shoes, No IPO”; “A debutante party is basically a bar mitzvah with sex in the parking lot”). This is best suited to O’Rourke completists. (Nov.)