Uncle Duke
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Uncle Duke is a fictional character in the comic strip Doonesbury. He is nominally Zonker Harris's uncle, although early in the Doonesbury continuity he was established as a Harris family friend, making him an "uncle by courtesy" only. Duke's appearance and mannerisms are heavily based on the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson (see Raoul Duke). When the character was first introduced, Thompson protested, (he was once quoted in an interview saying that he would set Trudeau on fire if the two ever met) although it was reported that he liked the character in later years.
Some people regard Uncle Duke, a rabid controlled-substances buff, as "the High Lord of Inner Space," but he is really, as his son would describe him, "Forrest Gump's evil twin", a devious and hardworking scam artist with a cynical sense of humor and no noticeable scruples or moral code. Like Forrest Gump, his career has mirrored American adventurism over the years. He has held many different jobs, some distinguished and political in nature, others decidedly not.
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[edit] Biography
Duke's early life is murky, but it is almost certain that he had a father and was born in a hospital. 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." "Duke" is the only name ever used for him the strip--it is not clear whether Duke is his given name or family name; however, the obituary excerpt on the back of the Doonesbury book "Death of a Party Animal" gives his full name as "Raoul Duke". References in the strip to him as "Governor Duke" and "Ambassador Duke" would also support the idea that "Duke" is his family name. Furthermore, in the strip dated 03/09/2006, his son mentions his initials are "E.D.", lending more credibility to the theory that Duke is his last name. Duke was born wearing Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses, and - after a few early strips - is never drawn without them.
During Duke's early appearances in the strip, he was portrayed as a happy-go-lucky, congenial stoner and alcoholic journalist who struggled to meet his deadlines. Once he became solidified as a main character rather than a recurring character, his personality gradually morphed to make him into a sociopathic con artist whose drug abuse and drinking took on a darker, albeit gallows humor, tone. While in his early appearances in the strip Duke was almost always in the company of Zonker and usually grinning, he is now almost never depicted in the same story arc as Zonker, and is drawn with a perpetual scowl on his face.
[edit] Duke vs. John Denver
Duke acquired a dislike for folksinger John Denver when Denver moved in next door to Duke's estate in Colorado and serenaded the neighborhood daily. Duke made a habit of shooting icicles off of Denver's porch roof with a high powered rifle. To this day the song "Rocky Mountain High" sends him into a violent frenzy. Despite theories by many of Duke's fans, Trudeau has refused to confirm or deny any complicity on Duke's part in the death of Denver in an ultralight flying accident. The closest he has come to commenting on the matter comes from the FAQ pages on the official Doonesbury Website. Although the original entry was more caustic towards readers demanding that Trudeau make light of a tragic event, the current FAQ entry regarding Duke's reaction to Denver's death now reads as follows:
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- Q: Will Duke react to John Denver's death? --E. Zuckerman
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- A: Fortunately, Duke is not in charge of his own storylines. Readers will be spared his grotesque, loathsome reaction.
[edit] Career path(s)
[edit] The 1970s
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.
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 Congress. His term as the Governor was a period unlike anything the island's inhabitants had ever seen, a term that saw one crisis after another. Most notable of these crises were a series of natural disasters ("I'm a reasonable man, Mac, so I know this isn't snow.") precipitated by a volcano virgin's refusal to sacrifice herself as scheduled, and a hostage crisis instigated by Duke himself that resulted in a U.S. rescue operation highlighted by the rescue force's inability to locate American Samoa. During this period, Duke also recruited his nephew, Zonker Harris, as the Lieutenant Governor, who accepted the assignment for the sole purpose of acquiring the perfect tan.
Despite these events, then-President Gerald Ford expressed his positive impression of Duke's "knack for diplomacy", and appointed him Ambassador to the People's Republic of China. Duke claimed to be suited to the role as he was "Good with minorities". He served from 1976 to 1977, before being recalled by newly-elected President Carter. While in China he met translator Honey Huan, who softened his harsh rhetoric, dragged him out of drug-induced stupors, and eventually fell madly in love with him in a Quixotic, not to say masochistic, one-sided devotion that would last for the next thirty years.
Following his "triumph" in Peking, Mr. Duke attempted a brief career as a laetrile farmer. He then made a name for himself as General Manager of the Washington Redskins, having been hired for his expertise in "sports medicine". During Duke's tenure in Washington, Honey arrived to study at Georgetown University and forcibly re-entered his life, becoming a partner in all his ventures thereafter. His experience in packing heat also led him to serve as a lobbyist for the NRA.
[edit] The "53rd Hostage"
The NRA gig led to the most high-profile of Duke's career moves, as Duke became "the 53rd hostage" of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. While working with the NRA, Duke was offered an "unspeakably depraved but highly patriotic" job by Universal Petroleum to enter Iran and bribe an underpaid accountant to secure oil rights. As this was a clandestine mission - Duke was required to parachute into Tehran due to travel restrictions - events naturally took a turn for the worse, and Duke was captured by revolutionary forces. He was found guilty of "High crimes against god and the Islamic Republic of Iran", espionage, bribery, illegal entry and possession of drugs. After Trudeau showed Duke in a cliffhanger attempt to bargain for his life before a firing squad, he was not seen in the strip for 17 months; Trudeau vowed that Duke would remain as a hostage as long as the US Embassy hostages remained in captivity. During this period, attempts were made by Duke's caretaker, Zeke Brenner, to have Duke legally declared deceased after having written a "tell-all" book on his employer. However, Zeke's efforts were thwarted by Zonker, who was declared Duke's sole heir in his will and subsequently placed Duke's estate in escrow.
[edit] The 1980s
Duke managed to bribe his firing squad and was eventually released. Upon his return to America, he first attempted to seek revenge against Zeke - not only for Zeke's attempts to have Duke declared legally deceased, but for refusing to send Duke the stash of Krugerrands he needed to negotiate his release. After wounding his former employee and fleeing a SWAT team with Honey's help, Duke settled down to a new career as a drug smuggler in Florida. This new career move was cut short by an ill-timed sightseeing cruise to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War. Duke and Honey ended up shipwrecked on a deserted island where they survived for months, believing themselves to be stranded in the Atlantic, until a pair of bird watchers Duke took hostage summarily informed him that he was on Matagorda Island, a few miles from the mainland of Texas.
Following his rescue from Matagorda, Duke became entangled in Hollywood politics, encountering "superagent" Sid Kibbitz. Kibbitz represented Duke in negotiations for a John De Lorean biopic project entitled "Fast Lanes, White Lines". Not surprisingly, the subject wound up leading to Duke and Honey being the target of a major cocaine bust. Shortly after, Trudeau took a 22 month hiatus (from January 1983 to October 1984), during which he helped create a Doonesbury Broadway production. The Broadway show, entitled Doonesbury: A Musical Comedy. While the fate of Duke following the cocaine bust was covered in the plot of the musical - Duke is found guilty, sentenced to five years probation, and required by the court to open and manage a drug rehabilitation center for that period - most readers were unaware of these events due to the show's short run and limited publicity. At the end of the musical, Duke's efforts to seize the Walden Commune so it can be razed and the land used for the rehab center are thwarted, and Trudeau has stated in interviews and on the official website FAQ that, while not shown in the musical, both Duke and Honey were forced to flee the country afterwards.
Following the hiatus, Duke and Honey opened the Baby Doc College of Offshore Medicine in Haiti, where Zonker was admitted as a medical student not because of his grades - which were unsurprisingly low - but because the volleyball team needed his talent. After yet another night of drug ingestion, Duke was discovered by Honey looking "more inert than usual" and pronounced dead. The death was portrayed by Trudeau seriously enough that the St. Petersburg Times ran a full obituary.
However, unknown to all but Trudeau (but suspected by fans), Duke was in fact not dead, but merely "zombified" and taken into slavery. He wound up being purchased by the deposed tyrant Duvalier, who used him as a manservant and renamed him Legume. A side effect of the zombification process resulted in Duke losing all of his hair. With a change in eyeglasses and shirt this almost prevented reporter Rick Redfern from recognizing "Legume" as the former Ambassador when Redfern interviewed Duvalier. Redfern notified Zonker of Duke's existence, and Zonker arranged to buy Duke's freedom using most of the $23 million dollar (USD) lottery he'd recently won. Duke's new look lasted through several story arcs before Trudeau returned him to the old hair, Ray-ban sunglasses and aloha shirt.
Back on his feet, Duke founded the Dr. Whoopee condom company, but lost control of it following a bad financial deal with John Gotti. Afterwards, Duke took a much-deserved rest in Bellevue ("Uncle Duke's been committed?" remarked Zonker, "Then our long national nightmare is over"), which was followed by a return to active duty as captain of Donald Trump's executive cruise ship, the Trump Princess. During Duke's captaincy, Honey returned to Bejing for a college reunion, which led to her inadvertent involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Seeking refuge in the U.S. Embassy after being named one of China's "25 most-wanted hooligans", Honey attracted the attention of Trump, who offered a million-dollar reward for her recovery as a 'symbol of freedom.' Financial inducement succeeding where personal loyalty failed, Duke smuggled Honey out of China by marrying her, a move that he would come to regret.
At decade's end, Duke was tapped by President George H. W. Bush, to serve as Maximum Proconsul in post-invasion Panama.
[edit] The 1990s
The first Gulf War found Duke smuggling arms to the underground resistance in Kuwait, then opening Club Scud, a popular wartime watering hole in Kuwait City. After working on David Duke's campaign, he began selling doctored photos of the John F. Kennedy assassination in Dallas, Texas to conspiracy theorists.
After the Republican revolution of 1994 Duke appealed to Speaker Newt Gingrich to help him open a low budget, privatized orphanage called "Nothin' But Orphans." One of his first charges, according to the DNA test results, was one of his long-lost sons, Earl. Abandoning the orphans and Honey, father and son lived in a trailer in Las Vegas, gaming and trafficking in stolen Beanie Babies (which belonged to Mike Doonesbury's own daughter).
Duke also spent some time in the early nineties as a bodyguard for Ollie North. When asked by Honey why North needed a bodyguard Duke replied "The Colonel's got enemies- powerful enemies!" When pressed he admitted, "Well, so far they're mostly imaginary." North was slow to trust him; but Duke soon became a key part of his security during his campaign for senator in Virginia. The public office bug soon became a key part of Duke's increasingly megalomaniacal psyche.
[edit] Duke 2000 and beyond
Duke ran for the White House after a short stretch as a key advisor to Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. His campaign, headquartered in a motel in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, was a resounding failure, despite corporate sponsorships by heavy hitters Lipton Tea and Absolut Vodka. (Through the magic of motion capture technology, Duke was able to announce his candidacy in the real world on Larry King Live.) A successful business trafficking in stem cells was followed by a lucrative involvement in the messy fallout from the Enron scandal. As conflict with Iraq loomed, Duke made a return to government work, taking up a post as Viceroy-in-Waiting.
During the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Duke installed himself as mayor of the (fictional) Iraqi city of Al Amok. In late September 2005, Duke escaped Iraq and relocated to New Orleans to profit from the reconstruction efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After years of verbal abuse and neglect - with the "final straw" being that she was living in a lifeboat while Duke occupied a first-class suite - Honey finally left Duke. As Duke interviewed new candidates for the position of love-slave and aide-de-camp, none of whom lasted more than a few hours, Honey partied on a Mardi Gras float. Although she did advise Earl on treatment of Duke while he was comatose, she seems to have broken with him for good.
[edit] Hunter S. Thompson's death
Between March 7, 2005 (roughly two weeks after Thompson's suicide) and March 12, 2005, the strip ran a tribute, with Uncle Duke lamenting the death of the man he called his "inspiration." The first of these strips[1] featured a panel with artwork similar to that of Ralph Steadman, who illustrated several of Thompson's works, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
[edit] Current events
Duke spent the period from late 2005 to late 2006 as a high-powered K Street lobbyist under the direction of his son Earl. He was not aware of the fact, since he was also comatose during that period (Earl conjectures this had something to do with losing Honey; Duke denies it). Earl used Duke's knowledge of indigenous people to secure lucrative contracts with Native American tribes. Upon Duke's awakening he and Earl must renegotiate the corridors of power under the new Democratic Congress. Recently there have been signs that Duke is having considerable success, finding a niche as a lobbyist for repressive regimes.
