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Uncle Duke
Uncle Duke is a fictional character in the comic strip Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau. He is nominally Zonker Harris's uncle, albeit an "uncle by courtesy" only. Duke appeared in the strip July 1974 and was originally a straightforward caricature of the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (see Raoul Duke), but eventually took on a life of his own and a succession of ill-fated ventures in the areas of politics, business and crime.
Duke is an epic consumer of drugs and alcohol and an amoral trickster with a fondness for firearms. He has a son called Earl who resembles him in most ways but is sober and more intelligent.
Duke's early life is murky. His mother is mentioned very few times in the strip; a flashback has her noting at Duke's college graduation that "one of three men I used to know would be very proud of you." He recalls having been born wearing Ray Bans, and is almost never seen without sunglasses in the strip. As Jim Andrews calls him a "42-year old balding bagman" in the strip for 6 July 1979, his birthyear could be 1936 or 1937. He tells Earl that he does not remember where he attended high school. He mentions to Honey that he fought in the Belgian Congo to pay for college. While in Haiti, he is visited by his former college roommate, Robert Vesco.
Despite Zonker calling him "Uncle Duke", Duke appears to be his surname, shared by his son Earl and his cousin David. The back matter for the Doonesbury collection "Death of a Party Animal" refers to him as "Raoul Duke," a throwback to the character's origins. Conversely, in one exposé of his past, he is revealed to have no last name.
In early strips, Duke and others would occasionally mention his wife, Sandy, and she makes a brief "appearance" (only her dialogue is shown, as is often the case in the comic strip) in several strips during a visit by Duke to their home in Colorado. Later, Duke forgets to bring her when he goes to his appointed posts in Samoa and China. When he finally returns home, his caretaker informs him that "She left years ago". They eventually divorced.
Since his first appearance in the strip, Duke has assumed many career hats, each more outlandish than the last. When first introduced, Duke was working as a writer under Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone magazine, much to Wenner's chagrin and aggravation over Duke's inability to meet deadlines and/or maintain coherence within the confines of his articles, which were often written with the aid of controlled substances. His Hunter S. Thompson comparisons are fairly evident in this beginning, as the first strip to feature him has him drunk and high on tequila and coke, attempting to kill invisible bats with a ruler.
While still on the staff of Rolling Stone, Duke applied for the position of Governor of American Samoa, and to his—and everyone else's—surprise, was actually appointed to the post by the United States Senate. Duke's tenure as governor was marked by a series of consecutive natural disasters, culminating in Duke himself instigating a hostage crisis.
Despite Duke's gross incompetence, he earned the favor of then-President Gerald Ford and was appointed as the United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a role for which Duke claimed to be perfectly suited due to his being "good with minorities". (In fact, the United States had no ambassador to mainland China at that time.) His tenure was largely uneventful and mostly consisted of his abusing his authority for personal gain and wagering with other members of the diplomatic community (notably the British ambassador) over the purging of various Chinese officials. During his time in China, he was assisted by interpreter Honey Huan, who developed an unrequited obsession with him, followed him to the US and became his much-abused sidekick for the next 30 years.
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Uncle Duke
Uncle Duke is a fictional character in the comic strip Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau. He is nominally Zonker Harris's uncle, albeit an "uncle by courtesy" only. Duke appeared in the strip July 1974 and was originally a straightforward caricature of the gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (see Raoul Duke), but eventually took on a life of his own and a succession of ill-fated ventures in the areas of politics, business and crime.
Duke is an epic consumer of drugs and alcohol and an amoral trickster with a fondness for firearms. He has a son called Earl who resembles him in most ways but is sober and more intelligent.
Duke's early life is murky. His mother is mentioned very few times in the strip; a flashback has her noting at Duke's college graduation that "one of three men I used to know would be very proud of you." He recalls having been born wearing Ray Bans, and is almost never seen without sunglasses in the strip. As Jim Andrews calls him a "42-year old balding bagman" in the strip for 6 July 1979, his birthyear could be 1936 or 1937. He tells Earl that he does not remember where he attended high school. He mentions to Honey that he fought in the Belgian Congo to pay for college. While in Haiti, he is visited by his former college roommate, Robert Vesco.
Despite Zonker calling him "Uncle Duke", Duke appears to be his surname, shared by his son Earl and his cousin David. The back matter for the Doonesbury collection "Death of a Party Animal" refers to him as "Raoul Duke," a throwback to the character's origins. Conversely, in one exposé of his past, he is revealed to have no last name.
In early strips, Duke and others would occasionally mention his wife, Sandy, and she makes a brief "appearance" (only her dialogue is shown, as is often the case in the comic strip) in several strips during a visit by Duke to their home in Colorado. Later, Duke forgets to bring her when he goes to his appointed posts in Samoa and China. When he finally returns home, his caretaker informs him that "She left years ago". They eventually divorced.
Since his first appearance in the strip, Duke has assumed many career hats, each more outlandish than the last. When first introduced, Duke was working as a writer under Jann Wenner for Rolling Stone magazine, much to Wenner's chagrin and aggravation over Duke's inability to meet deadlines and/or maintain coherence within the confines of his articles, which were often written with the aid of controlled substances. His Hunter S. Thompson comparisons are fairly evident in this beginning, as the first strip to feature him has him drunk and high on tequila and coke, attempting to kill invisible bats with a ruler.
While still on the staff of Rolling Stone, Duke applied for the position of Governor of American Samoa, and to his—and everyone else's—surprise, was actually appointed to the post by the United States Senate. Duke's tenure as governor was marked by a series of consecutive natural disasters, culminating in Duke himself instigating a hostage crisis.
Despite Duke's gross incompetence, he earned the favor of then-President Gerald Ford and was appointed as the United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a role for which Duke claimed to be perfectly suited due to his being "good with minorities". (In fact, the United States had no ambassador to mainland China at that time.) His tenure was largely uneventful and mostly consisted of his abusing his authority for personal gain and wagering with other members of the diplomatic community (notably the British ambassador) over the purging of various Chinese officials. During his time in China, he was assisted by interpreter Honey Huan, who developed an unrequited obsession with him, followed him to the US and became his much-abused sidekick for the next 30 years.