The CEO of the Sofa

by P.J. O'Rourke

The Barnes & Noble Review
In his bestselling Eat the Rich, smart-mouthed Republican commentator P. J. O'Rourke gave a slap in the face to the American economy. In Parliament of Whores, he took a long, hard look at our government, wagging his finger at its inadequacies. Now fans and foes alike can find out what it's like to live with a self-proclaimed "political nut," in his latest, The CEO of the Sofa.

Readers inclined to the political left, beware. With a sharp supporting cast of characters featuring his assistant, Max; his teenage godson, Nick; his wife, two kids, and their teenage babysitter, O'Rourke is at the top of his game, rambling and ranting on every topic from the United Nations to childcare, from Social Security to India -- all the while attempting not to offend his Democrat neighbors, especially "when they own a snow blower that I'm going to need to borrow." From the living room to the bedroom, the garage to the kitchen, O'Rourke explains why managers should refer to baby books in dealing with everyone from the regional sales director to the president of the United States (" 'You control him,' says Your One-Year-Old, 'by controlling the surroundings and by just not having too many things around that will get him into difficulty...' Interns for one."); and spreads the truth about how Social Security works ("There is no money in the Social Security trust fund, and there never was. Money is a government IOU. Government can't create a trust fund by saving its own IOUs anymore than I could create a trust fund by writing 'I get a chunk of cash when I turn 21' on a piece of paper").

With hallmark acidity, O'Rourke spares no rancor for Hillary Clinton, whom he calls a "she-ape from New York State," analyzing the arguments for why she may or may not be a dunce (Argument Contra Stupidity: "Partner in most prestigious law firm in Arkansas" / Argument Pro: "Examine phrase 'Most prestigious law firm in Arkansas' "); and tearing into her book, It Takes a Village ("Nearly everything about It Takes a Village is objectionable, from the title -- an ancient African proverb which seems to have its origins in the ancient African kingdom of Hallmarkcardia -- to the acknowledgements page where Mrs. Clinton fails to acknowledge that some poor journalism professor named Barbara Feinman did most of the work").

In a section divided into months from September 2000 to August 2001, readers are treated to a look at the humble home life of a political nut -- with glimpses of wine tasting with Chris Buckley, driving lessons with his godson, and his assistant Max's itemized update on current celebrities ("Just Between Max and PJ: [Will] Smith is talented, has a sense of humor, and you would, in fact, even like his music. Do not let this get out or it will ruin his career"). But while The CEO of the Sofa will give even the liberal a belly laugh at times, O'Rourke is not for the faint of heart, advising his readers, "It's important to remember that Democrats aren't just crazy, they're evil." In other words, if you can't take the heat, stay out of P. J. O'Rourke's kitchen. (Elise Vogel)

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction, Politics, Essays, American, Economics, Biography

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Patrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. Since 2011 O'Rourke has been a columnist at The Daily Beast. In the United Kingdom, he is known as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways in the 1990s.

He is the author of 20 books, of which his latest, The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn’t My Fault) (And I’ll Never Do It Again), was released January 2014. This was preceded on September 21, 2010, by Don't Vote! – It Just Encourages the Bastards, and on September 1, 2009, Driving Like Crazy with a reprint edition published on May 11, 2010. According to a 60 Minutes profile, he is also the most quoted living man in The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations.

Reviews

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was prepared for the political density (some of which went straight over my head!) but I was not prepared for the darkly satirical humour that also permeated this book. O'Rourke managed to make a series of essays, on topics I am not hugely knowledgeable about, as engaging as they were humorous. Whilst some of the facts stated are now outdated, this is still a relevant and interesting non-ficton, delivered in an individual style, and managing to be altogether damning of society.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

Three chapters and DONE.

Man, PJ O'Rourke used to be somebody. His work at National Lampoon was great, and the "High School Yearbook Parody" he helmed there is a high point in American humor. As a proto-neocon pundit, even when he was completely disagreeable, he remained a wit. Here he's going for Oliver Wendell Holmes but comes off as an open-mic comic crossed with Andy Rooney ("I hate cell phones! And people who use earpieces with their cellphones look like crazy people talking to themselves!") -- and his self-deprecating note in the TOC about this screed can't save it.

And not only has he become clueless to the popular culture (or the pop culture circa 1997, as he misspells Tupac Shakur), he can't even get the right name of someone in his camp (note: the female senator from North Carolina and wife of Bob Dole does not go by "Libby." No matter how many hits come up when you Google it). Things like that may seem nitpicky, but if someone (or his people) can't be bothered to get easily-verifiable things like that right, then I'm certainly not going to trust him to hold forth on complicated things like why the UN and Social Security are messes.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE CEO OF THE SOFA contained five chapters I really liked, and another seven or eight I could have easily done without. O'Rourke's witty prose never flags, but much of the humor in the book falls flat. At his best, O'Rourke is like a cross between Dennis Miller and Dave Barry. His comedy is very high brow (often to a fault), yet he also manages to pass himself off as an everyday sort of guy. THE CEO OF THE SOFA isn't for everybody. Much of the subject matter is dense, politically charged, and/or dated. People with a dry sense of humor and a distaste for popular American culture will be amused...others not so much.

[Pete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as PJ's other work. It is mostly a rehash of previous articles and columns strung together with a bit of a narrative that tends to distract from rather than compliment his musings.

Also, it is based on his writings in 2001, but ends in August. So many of his opinions look uninformed in light of 9/11. So again, it is not as enjoyable as his other works.

[CJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

PJ's books were a lot better when he was still drinking heavily and snorting a lot of coke. This whole "I'm a dad, and gosh, that makes me ponder things" was done better by Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The only one of his books that I have not really enjoyed. A grab bag of articles from around 2000. Nothing staler than reading the "Clintons are evil" rants in 2011. Most of the rest forgettable soon after reading. No focus and no punch.

[Sorcha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing bits, but not one of his best

[Millstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled a bit with this one, to be honest, which was slightly unexpected, and had to read another book alongside it to keep it going. I realize that's probably because it's a collection of pieces written for magazines stitched together, but most of his books are and it's not been a problem before. Perhaps it's me not you, PJ? And there were some very good bits which came to the rescue: just rather more thinly spread than usual.

[Stan Rea · Rating 4 out of 5]

After P.J. O'Rourke's recent passing I finally decided to get one or two of his books. It was fun but this book is kind of dated. Basically it's a series of entries for the months from about November 2000 through August of 2001. Knowing how the world changed after 9/11/2001 it's just kind of strange listening (I did the audio version) to this 21 years later.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dilemma

I have a long -standing love/hate relationship with O'Rourke.His writing is so deft, clever, and seemingly effortless. It is a joy to read so!e of his center even if I disagree with most of what he says, especially about Democrats. I'm a Democrat, but I read his cheap anyway. It's good to have insight about what the other signings are up to.

[Dagus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

P.J. turning into a bitter old man; he just hadn't arrived yet. It's not only not on a par with his best stuff, it's not even on the same course. The chapter on India is ok, but I'm pretty sure he'd published it once before. Rest in peace, P.J.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never tire of the unique lens O'Rourke wears as he's viewing his surroundings.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked O'Rourke's works in general when I started reading them, but for me, they got sort of "tone repetitive".

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF. Lost interest

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am "somewhere to the left" of Mr. O'Rourke, having come from a Republican family, myself. However I find his writing incredibly funny as hell, especially when he is attacking sacred cows. I feel there is nothing in politics worthy of sacred cowdom. Especially these days.
An added bonus is his description of a trip to India which, you might presuppose, would be full of nothing but the usual conservative snark. (If conservative snark is your bag, then you would be better off reading Ann Coulter. She doesn't, like, like You, either.) The India section actually manages to show some of that "compassion" George Bush boasted about but primarily used as a talking point to excuse funding commonweal initiatives. P. J. couldn't stand Bush either. Good for him! It's an interesting peek into the life of one of America's most un-obvious left-wing spokesmen- he's a frequent guest on Bill Maher's show, for Pete's sake! Takes one to know one, Bill?
SO... maybe he's a closet lib after all, or a poseur-conservative like Colbert, only taking the piss for the money he can get out of it. Besides, folks, the choice is not one between "Liberalism and Conservatism" -if you know anything about either, it is between "Liberalism and Totalitarianism".
You can petty safely fit most Americans into the "Liberal" camp when you ask if they'd prefer Hitlerism, Stalinism, or Maoism as a social contract.
What the hay, we all need to earn a living. Or perhaps, by his knocking off and kicking around sacred cows, he's scourging the temple of hypocrisy. I get the feeling Lenny Bruce would have liked him, too.

[John Bruni · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like your political humor loaded down with facts, then this is the book for you. O'Rourke is an incredibly smart man who can get you to laugh, even if his style is dryer than a martini, sometimes. It is a very dated book, so if you don't remember the political climate of 2001 before 9/11, then you might not get much out of this one. I find it's interesting that the timeline O'Rourke goes through ends one month before everything in America changed. I wonder how different this book would have been if he'd dipped into September. And lest ye think he sits on high, casting his jokes and wisdom down on the unwashed masses, he takes quite a few shots at himself. Dry self-deprecation is a specialty of his. The only thing that bugs me is that he sometimes comes off as a cranky old man, whether it be about cell phones or people who write on PC's instead of typewriters. At one point, he goes off on a rant about celebrities of the time. Interestingly enough, only two or three of those celebrities have vanished off the face of the earth. The rest are more or less megastars. I wonder what he makes of that. [The next part might be considered a spoiler, but I'm of the opinion that it is impossible to spoil a political humor book, since there's nothing really to spoil. If you care about that sort of thing, stop now. Otherwise:] But the oddest thing about this book is that after it dissects politics and culture and just about everything else, he ends with a book review. He's got a very interesting take on FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS. I would have loved to have gotten Hunter S. Thompson's response.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I grew up convinced that it was impossible for an American right-winger to be amusing. Then I read Holidays in Hell by P.J. O'Rourke.

A hippy turned yuppy, the worst kind of turncoat in many ways, O'Rourke embraced the credo of greed wholesale, poking fun at his previous beliefs while singing the praises of shameless excess and the free market with an apology-free arrogance impossible to resist.

Essentially he is a magazine writer, his books being merely attempts of varying conviction to resale already published articles in a single, collected form.

The CEO Of The Sofa is undoubtedly the least successful of those attempts so far, mulching together various writings across 2000-2001 in a weak framing device modeled on Oliver Wendell Holmes's The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, a wry set of paternalistic, satirical opinions written in the mid-19th century.

The most fun here is to be found in O'Rourke's Clinton-bashing, with a particularly tasty precise of Hilary's clap-trap about raising children, It Takes a Village.

The jokes are a little tired though this time around. As a bachelor his libertarianism had conviction, as a married father of two young daughters it seems diluted and vicarious.

In hindsight the most interesting feature here is a highly dismissive attitude towards the threat of terrorism.

The last chapter of the book is occurs in August, 2001.

[Kevin Rubin · Rating 3 out of 5]

P.J. O'Rourke is simply one of the funniest writers out there and this book is no exception. It had me laughing aloud in quite a bit of it.

It's mostly shorter pieces, presented like a month-by-month diary, with little related. O'Rourke is relatively conservative and rants and raves about Democrats, but doesn't spare Republicans, either.

His cast includes his neighbor, named The Political Nut, who is even loonier than him, his wife who is the voice of reason to remind him when his rants go too far or his jokes may be in bad taste, his assistant Max who puts together information for him and his 3 year old daughter, Muffin, who reminds him when his vocabulary is a bit off, and his teenage godson, Nick who develops a budding romance with the teenage babysitter from next door.

While I felt the jokes in the overly political portions of the books sometimes fell flat while the absolute most hilarious section was O'Rourke and Christopher Buckley doing a wine tasting. Neither of them are wine drinkers but thought they'd give it a try, with the bartender getting them expensive wines (up to $300) and them picking cheap <$5 plonks... A whole lot of drunken laughter...

Another familiar part was the chapter on his trip across India in 1998, as part of a promotional drive for an auto manufacturer. I could relate to a lot of what he wrote about that!

[GD · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember seeing PJ O'Rourke's name on the cover of Rolling Stone all the time when I was a teenager, but I never read the articles because I hate politics and was always looking for something about Prince instead. I came across this in a used bookstore recently though and thought I'd give it a whirl.

This is a super funny book, kind of stream-of-consciousness, pointlessly divided into 12 sections, one for each month of a year. It ends in August 2001, which sucks, because I would really have liked to know what he thought about the Twin Towers attacks.

O'Rourke is a Republican who hates Bush, which is almost what I am as well, so it's easier for me to relate to him and his brand of comedy than it would be for most of my friends. The only thing about this book that's kind of negative is that it's so focused on current events and technology that it seems kind of dated 11 years later in some parts. That of course is no fault of his own, but it feels kind of strange reading all these hilarious anti-Clinton tirades when I haven't really thought about him for 12 years. The anti-Hillary tirades, though, are still relevant. What a ho.

Anyway, as soon as I get my Kindle replaced (it was lost a week ago, I'm still recovering from the shock), I'll get some more of his books.

[Fc O'neill]

PJ O Rourke is a tosser, an American tosser and a yankee republican tosser to boot. In a world of smug pricks, he has collected all the discarded smucks, sewn them together and made a sleeping bag so he can be a smug prick inside a snug prick. He's funny because he's no holds barred poisonous. I'd wear disposable rubber gloves to read this shit, just to remind myou that right-wing sleight of hand agit-prop is at work. He's an ardent free-marketeer and this book of satire throws light on the recent global banking catastrophe. Gags that may have once garnered laughter are the agents of shuddering realisation of how stupid greed is. This book was written in 2000, the start of millennial smugdom. Everyone with a Commerce degree became a financial messiah, leading us to the promised land of manna. They bent us over and we gladly recieved. We became disciples of the cause... Greed is good. And then? they crucified us... the funniest thing is hindsight.

[Scott Bartlett · Rating 2 out of 5]

PJ is intelligent though disputable. His predispositions about political parties are apparent, yet also cleverly disguised wide open as polemical diatribe (in other words his character is Republican and stuck up about it, though the criticisms accross all parties are laugh inside, as opposed to laugh out loud...)
So currently I'm about a 1/2 the way into the audio book 4 and a half hours...
The book begins with a survey of the UN and a typical Republican conservative critique which is obviously condescending, but it seems that's what PJ is best at, and smart about... And as it is, I would rather hear his criticism than some sloppy solipsism any day. His critique of Hilary Clinton's political philosophy is worth the chagrin, even though this was written during the 're'-election of Bush.

[Jack Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

As funny as anything O'Rourke writes, and as he concentrates less on politics and foreign policy and more on family and everyday life, it's probably more accessible to more people. It's written in a style meant to riff off The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.), and in such a way that the style itself makes for some hilarity. I love O'Rourke; if you don't, you probably won't like it, but it's the book of his you have the best chance of liking, I think.

[Petalbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Corny at first, makes you wonder - is this the same PJ O'Rourke who wrote that excellent travel bit about India? Sure enough it is, but where in a magazine article a manageable dose of cynicism and cleverness (an undesirable trait) is all right, in a book it'll either make you give up after page 5 or keep plodding on. We'll see how this one turns out.

[Lanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Went to Strand Books looking for those YA series on Flying Teens pursued by flying Wolf-teens, but fell into the Non-Fiction gap again. O'Rourke has always been a solid writer with Rolling Stone magazine and I should've sought out some of his books much sooner. Only just started, but bound to be full of great political and social commentaries on the lighter side.

[John Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. A usual I disagreed with an awful lot that he said but loved the way that he said it. The sections on the UN and a drive through India were particularly good as is the section describing a number of modern celebrities.

[kevin kvalvik · Rating 1 out of 5]

PJ O'Rourke i had only heard in passing on any number of occasions. I thought he was clever but after reading this offering it seems that he is just a boorish aging white guy who is past his prime and apparently past anything worth saying.

[Kurt Meeske · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tedious. I want my time back. My reading selections are sometimes very random and this book demonstrates the downside of that system. Looking on the bright side, my next "goodread" will be all the more enjoyable....there's that to look forward to.

[Robert JA Basilio Jr.]

O' Rourke trying to replicate Oliver Wendell Holmes' writings in the Breakfast Table. A bit forced and less funny than the others.

[Big D · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love reading P.J. O'Rourke! This was his worst written and/or worst edited book to date. Unlike any of the other books (all of them?) I have read. Strange.

[Michael Dippold · Rating 5 out of 5]

witty.