John Oliver's bunny book is handily outselling the Pence bunny book
We’ve all pretty much grown to expect Last Week Tonight ending with some sort of viral “I can’t believe they did that” stunt each week, but this week’s release of a full children’s book starring Vice President Mike Pence’s pet rabbit Marlon Bundo felt like a raising of the stakes. The book was secretly constructed by the Last Week Tonight team to steal thunder from a separate book about the bunny, written by Pence’s daughter. Oliver’s, however, subverted Pence’s, with a storyline about a boy bunny falling in love with another boy bunny to the consternation of a very Pence-like homophobic authority figure. This provocation was met with conniptions of rage in the right-wing press, and apparent glee from everyone else, as the gay bunny book is trouncing the other bunny book on Amazon.
Yes, currently sitting at #1 and #2 is A Day In The Life Of Marlon Bundo, both with several thousand positive reviews. You will note that Charlotte Pence’s lowly review total sits at 67, which is in part because Amazon started verifying that all reviewers for the product had in fact purchased it after a flood of negative reviews sought to tank the rating. It’s also worth noting that all proceeds from the Oliver book are going to The Trevor Project and AIDS United, which means this is a fundamentally good thing regardless of how you look at it. (You can also give to those donations, independent of the children’s book, by clicking either of those links.)
Oliver stopped by The Ellen Show today and appeared to find out about its sales-chart victory on-air.
He reports that they’ve already sold completely out of the book, but a second printing is under way, if you’re willing to wait a few weeks. The video is mostly worth watching for the sight of Oliver sprinting throughout Ellen’s audience handing out copies of the book in a state of visible distress. “My gifts are not exactly physical,” he explains.
Meanwhile, the official Marlon Bundo Instagram account is taking this whole thing very well.
Look, we all agree: This is a very chill bunny. But we also all agree: Fuck Mike Pence.
You can agree with both by getting a copy here, assuming you’re willing to wait a few weeks.