John Oliver and the staff of his late-night talk show Last Week Tonight have one-upped Vice President Mike Pence's family with the release of a parody children's book, titled Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.
The book is incredibly similar in name and appearance to the children's book recently released by Pence's 24-year-old daughter, Charlotte, and illustrated by his wife, Second Lady Karen Pence, titled Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President.
While Charlotte Pence's book shares a family-friendly look at life in the Veep's office, Oliver's version of the book, written by Last Week Tonight staff writer Jill Twiss, follows Mike Pence's rabbit Bundo as he falls in love for the first time - with another male rabbit. The book also includes a character named the Stink Bug, who bears a not-too-subtle resemblance to Mike Pence and believes boy bunnies are only allowed to marry girl bunnies.
“Please, buy it for your children, buy it for any child you know, or just buy it because you know it would annoy Mike Pence,” Oliver said of his book late last week.
He continued: “You would be doing a nice thing in a really dickish way, and isn’t that the dream at the end of the day?”
While the first print-run of Oliver's book has sold out and topped the Amazon best-sellers chart, the audio version features the vocal talents of Jim Parsons, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jeff Garlin, Ellie Kemper, John Lithgow, Jack McBrayer, and RuPaul.
Proceeds from both versions of the book will be donated to charity: the Pence family’s will be donated to A21, which works to end human trafficking, and Tracy’s Kids, an art-therapy program for children with cancer, while Last Week Tonight will be donating all profits to the queer-friendly Trevor Project and AIDS United.
Despite some backlash from conservative commentators on Twitter, Charlotte Pence seems to have taken the comparable book in her stride, telling Fox Business Network: “I think imitation is the most sincere form of flattery in a way."
She continued: “But in all seriousness, his book is contributing to charities that I think we can all get behind. We have two books that are giving to charities that are both about bunnies, so I’m all for it, really,” she said.
