History Main / GonzoJournalism

%%** This is more likely to occur with local broadcasts. While the professional leagues and major media networks have agreements to broadcast big games across the US on a regular basis,[[note]]e.g., Creator/{{ESPN}} has ''Sunday Night Baseball'' and ''Series/MondayNightFootball''[[/note]] most professional teams have agreements with local or regional networks to broadcast the vast majority of games that don't get on national TV.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball is the major exception, due to its ''massive'' popularity and relatively fewer games -- once a week for 16 weeks. Compare that with basketball, ice hockey (82 games, 3-4 games a week), and baseball (162 games, a game nearly every day).[[/note]] Consequently, while nationwide telecasts have announcers who will be calling games for different teams week after week (and an announcer with such an obvious bias to one team will alienate a huge chunk of the audience, whether it's fans of the other team or just casual fans), games on local broadcasts will see pretty much the same announcers for the same team being covered and will generally have fans of that particular team as their main audience. After all, if you're going through the effort to find that team on a cable channel or radio, you're more likely to be a loyal fan of that team in general.

* Sports broadcasts in North America can have their own version in their announcers. Most announcers will at least try to present themselves as neutral, but some will embrace their biased coverage and make it part of their image. A prime example is Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, the now-retired play-by-play announcer for the {{UsefulNotes/Chicago}} [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams White Sox]].

%%* Of course, Creator/HunterSThompson.

Gonzo journalism developed during the 1960s, spearheaded by outlaw journalist Creator/HunterSThompson. Thompson wrote very stylized news stories told from the first person perspective (most news stories are written in third person) that were often sarcastic, vulgar and extremely negative of his opposition, including his personal [[ArchEnemy arch-nemesis]], U.S. President UsefulNotes/RichardNixon. The UrExample, TropeCodifier, and {{Genre Launch}}er is Thompson's "[[UsefulNotes/HorseRacing The Kentucky Derby]] is Decadent and Depraved", published in the short-lived literary magazine ''Scanlan's Monthly'' in June 1970, documenting his trip to Louisville--his hometown--and the bizarre festival that is the Derby.

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[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]
* Duke in the early years of ''ComicStrip/{{Doonesbury}}'', so much that he's named after Hunter S. Thompson's alter ego Raoul Duke. Later in the strip's run he becomes a free-range influence peddler.
* ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'':
** In the early years of the strip, the character Limekiller was added to the cast. Gary Trudeau complained the character was too similar to Duke in ''Doonesbury'', which Berkeley Breathed admitted in his "Complete Bloom County" collection. Written out of the strip not long after Opus the Penguin became the comic's BreakoutCharacter.
** Milo Bloom often wrote heavily-biased news articles filled with screaming headlines and personal attacks on corrupt government officials. Thompson would have been proud.
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[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Web Comic ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* P.J. O'Rourke is often viewed as the conservative/libertarian counterpart to Thompson, who was staunchly left-wing and sympathized with the [[NewAgeRetroHippie '60s counterculture]]. He does, however, cite Thompson as an influence (along with H. L. Mencken), and [[http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=365 looks favorably on him.]]

[[folder: Film ]]
* [=McDougal=] from ''Film/ThePaper''. Of course, the enemy he demonizes is the parking commissioner.
[[/folder]]

* In the early years of ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', the character Limekiller was added to the cast. Gary Trudeau complained the character was too similar to Duke in ''Doonesbury'', which Berkeley Breathed admitted in his "Complete Bloom County" collection. Written out of the strip not long after Opus the Penguin became the comic's BreakoutCharacter.

* Of course, Creator/HunterSThompson.
* In Argentina, the well known writer and periodist, and Peronist militant Creator/RodolfoWalsh.

** This is more likely to occur with local broadcasts. While the professional leagues and major media networks have agreements to broadcast big games across the US on a regular basis,[[note]]e.g., Creator/{{ESPN}} has ''Sunday Night Baseball'' and ''Series/MondayNightFootball''[[/note]] most professional teams have agreements with local or regional networks to broadcast the vast majority of games that don't get on national TV.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball is the major exception, due to its ''massive'' popularity and relatively fewer games -- once a week for 16 weeks. Compare that with basketball, ice hockey (82 games, 3-4 games a week), and baseball (162 games, a game nearly every day).[[/note]] Consequently, while nationwide telecasts have announcers who will be calling games for different teams week after week (and an announcer with such an obvious bias to one team will alienate a huge chunk of the audience, whether it's fans of the other team or just casual fans), games on local broadcasts will see pretty much the same announcers for the same team being covered and will generally have fans of that particular team as their main audience. After all, if you're going through the effort to find that team on a cable channel or radio, you're more likely to be a loyal fan of that team in general.

* Tom Wolfe is also seen as a major influence on gonzo journalism, and is considered one of the founders of the broader "New Journalism" movement of the 1960s and 70s, along with Thompson.

* Sports broadcasts in North America can have their own version in their announcers. Most announcers will at least try to present themselves as neutral, but some will embrace their biased coverage and make it part of their image. A prime example is Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, the play-by-play announcer for the {{UsefulNotes/Chicago}} [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams White Sox]].
** This is more likely to occur with local broadcasts. While the professional leagues and major media networks have agreements to broadcast big games across the US on a regular basis,[[note]]e.g., Creator/{{ESPN}} has ''Sunday Night Baseball'' and ''Monday Night Football''[[/note]] most professional teams have agreements with local or regional networks to broadcast the vast majority of games that don't get on national TV.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball is the major exception, due to its ''massive'' popularity and relatively fewer games -- once a week for 16 weeks. Compare that with basketball, ice hockey (82 games, 3-4 games a week), and baseball (162 games, a game nearly every day).[[/note]] Consequently, while nationwide telecasts have announcers who will be calling games for different teams week after week (and an announcer with such an obvious bias to one team will alienate a huge chunk of the audience, whether its fans of the other team or just casual fans), games on local broadcasts will see pretty much the same announcers for the same team being covered and will generally have fans of that particular team as their main audience. After all, if you're going through the effort to find that team on a cable channel or radio, you're more likely to be a loyal fan of that team in general.

* [=McDougal=] from ''The Paper''. Of course, the enemy he demonizes is the parking commissioner.

* ''Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas'': Pretty much the TropeCodifier. A stream-of-conscious novel written by Creator/HunterSThompson in the early 1970s chronicling his experiences covering news stories in Las Vegas. Although ostensibly about his coverage of a motorcycle race and a police convention, Thompson used the setting to criticize what he saw as vile in American culture as well as lament the death of the ideals he and the hippies aspired to, but failed to see realized, in the previous decade.

* In Argentina, the well known writer and periodist, and Peronist militant Creator/RodolfoWalsh

[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/IxodQuote_6824.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:256:[[Webcomic/AtArmsLength Ixod Instanbul]] shares his thoughts on professional sports...]]

The style was created entirely because Thompson was a RidiculousProcrastinator who was [[ChristmasRushed up against his deadline]] and, lacking anything to show for his work other than his basic notes on the event, simply started ripping pages out of his notebook and sending them in. The magazine published his first-person notes from the Derby as-is, and thus [[AccidentalArt Gonzo Journalism was born]]. Another Sicties pioneer of the genre was Creator/TomWolfe, who before becoming a satiric novelist penned acid-colored articles like "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" and "Las Vegas (What?) Las Vegas (Can't hear you! Too noisy) Las Vegas!!!!"

The style was created entirely because Thompson was a RidiculousProcrastinator who was [[ChristmasRushed up against his deadline]] and, lacking anything to show for his work other than his basic notes on the event, simply started ripping pages out of his notebook and sending them in. The magazine published his first-person notes from the Derby as-is, and thus [[AccidentalArt Gonzo Journalism was born]].

** This is more likely to occur with local broadcasts. While the professional leagues and major media networks have agreements to broadcast big games across the US on a regular basis,[[note]]e.g., {{ESPN}} has ''Sunday Night Baseball'' and ''Monday Night Football''[[/note]] most professional teams have agreements with local or regional networks to broadcast the vast majority of games that don't get on national TV.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball is the major exception, due to its ''massive'' popularity and relatively fewer games -- once a week for 16 weeks. Compare that with basketball, ice hockey (82 games, 3-4 games a week), and baseball (162 games, a game nearly every day).[[/note]] Consequently, while nationwide telecasts have announcers who will be calling games for different teams week after week (and an announcer with such an obvious bias to one team will alienate a huge chunk of the audience, whether its fans of the other team or just casual fans), games on local broadcasts will see pretty much the same announcers for the same team being covered and will generally have fans of that particular team as their main audience. After all, if you're going through the effort to find that team on a cable channel or radio, you're more likely to be a loyal fan of that team in general.

* P.J. O'Rourke is often viewed as the conservative/libertarian counterpart to Thompson, who was staunchly left-wing and sympathized with the [[NewAgeRetroHippie '60s counterculture]]. He does, however, cite Thompson as an influence (along with H. L. Mencken), and [[http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/story_detail.php?id=365 looks favorably on him]].

** This is more likely to occur with local broadcasts. While the professional leagues and major media networks have agreements to broadcast big games across the US on a regular basis[[note]]e.g., {{ESPN}} has ''Sunday Night Baseball'' and ''Monday Night Football''[[/note]], most professional teams have agreements with local or regional networks to broadcast the vast majority of games that don't get on national TV.[[note]]UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball is the major exception, due to its ''massive'' popularity and relatively fewer games -- once a week for 16 weeks. Compare that with basketball, ice hockey (82 games, 3-4 games a week), and baseball (162 games, a game nearly every day).[[/note]] Consequently, while nationwide telecasts have announcers who will be calling games for different teams week after week (and an announcer with such an obvious bias to one team will alienate a huge chunk of the audience, whether its fans of the other team or just casual fans), games on local broadcasts will see pretty much the same announcers for the same team being covered and will generally have fans of that particular team as their main audience. After all, if you're going through the effort to find that team on a cable channel or radio, you're more likely to be a loyal fan of that team in general.

* The protagonist of Bryan Young's ''Lost at the Con'' is a self-declared gonzo journalist, usually on the political beats, who gets sent to cover [[FanConvention Griffin*Con]][[note]]A thinly-veiled {{Expy}} of [=DragonCon=][[/note]]. At first he's very disparaging of the con and the kind of people who go there (both fans and guests) [[spoiler:but eventually winds up defending them against the kind of {{Jerk Jock}}s who pick on people that just want to have fun and be themselves]].

* [=McDougal=] from ''The Paper'' qualifies. Of course, the enemy he demonizes is the parking commissioner.

* The protagonist of Bryan Young's ''Lost at the Con'' is a self-declared gonzo journalist, usually on the political beats, who gets sent to cover [[FanConvention Griffin*Con]][[note]]A thinly-veiled {{Expy}} of DragonCon[[/note]]. At first he's very disparaging of the con and the kind of people who go there (both fans and guests) [[spoiler:but eventually winds up defending them against the kind of {{JerkJock}}s who pick on people that just want to have fun and be themselves]].