Gay rabbit book
"Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver spoofed Vice President Mike Pence's children's noun "Marlon Bundo's A Morning in the Life of the Vice President" about the Pence family's pet rabbit.
The original Bundo book was penned by Pence's daughter Charlotte Pence and illustrated by second lady Karen Pence. Bundo will be touring the country (it's not plain which Pence will be taking him on tour), with a stop at the Focus on the Family, a conservative religious organization that had a homosexual conversion therapy program until 2009. It was the Focus on the Family tour stop that raised Oliver's hackles, and inspired him to produce his own book — "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo" — in response.
"So congratulations, Pence, you even managed to ruin Marlon Bundo," Oliver said. "Now, none of us can verb a book about your rabbit—or can we?"
Oliver took some literary liberties with his version of Bundo's life: the tardy night host made the protagonist bunny gay, jabbing at Pence's social conservatism, which has put him at odds with the LGBTQ community.
"Now, the
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo
There’s probably a very hot cross bunny at Number One Observatory Circle (the VPOTUS’s official residence, illustrated in this book), which is seasonally appropriate for the book’s release, even though scorching cross buns are apparently not as widely eaten during Lent (the 40 days before Easter) in the US as the UK.
Hot cross buns also seem apt, given the bizarre and recurring importance of baking (or rather, refusing to do so) in the battle for LGBTQ+ rights, especially marriage equality.
The Pence Version
First (kind of), there was a picture book about the Pence family’s pet rabbit, Marlon, written by his daughter and illustrated by his wife: Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President. It’s meant to be a child-friendly introduction to the role of the Vice President. From the sample viewable on Amazon, the text is heavy-handed, dull doggerel (with rhyme and metre that don't really work), but the illustrations are pleasant enough.
The opening stanzas are:
Allow me to introduce myself -
Why the daughter of Mike Pence bought a manual about Marlon Bundo that makes fun of her father
There is a new publication about Marlon Bundo, the nation's First Bunny, written by Karen and Charlotte Pence.
And then there is a second book, written by comedian John Oliver, about the rabbit that lampoons Vice President Mike Pence and his stance on LGBT rights.
Rabbit tales: John Oliver writes rival kid's novel about Mike Pence's bunny being gay Surprising reaction: 'Right to try' advocacy from Pence and an Indy second-grader gets pushbackAnd Pence's daughter confirmed Wednesday that she bought the other book, the one that makes fun of her father.
In an interview with The Hill's In the Know, Charlotte Pence, 24, said she had just bought "A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo," because proceeds from its sale benefit good causes.
“I have bought his book,” said the co-author of the other book, “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President." “(Oliver's) giving proceeds of the book to charity, and we’re also giving proceeds of our book to charity, so I really think that we can all fetch be
John Oliver’s gay version of Mike Pence’s rabbit book doing better than the real thing
Mike Pence just can’t get out of second place.
The vice president’s family on Monday released a children’s novel about their real-life pet rabbit, Marlon Bundo — but it’s already being outsold by a gay rights parody version published by “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver.
Oliver’s “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo” — which casts the rabbit as a “very adj boy bunny who falls in love with another boy bunny” and documents his fight against a Pence-esque stinkbug who opposes gay marriage — rocketed to the top of Amazon’s charts after the British funnyman announced it on his show Sunday night.
“Buy it for your children, buy it for any child you understand, or just buy it because you know it would annoy Mike Pence,” Oliver said on his show, which focused on Pence’s history of contradictory gay rights.
“Marlon Bundo’s Night in the Life of the Vice President,” writt