Read John Oliver’s new gay bunny book

Emmy Award-winning host of the talk show “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver parodied the Vice President family’s children’s book, “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President” by publishing a LGBTQ version featuring a pair of gay bunnies. The book, “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” was released one day before Mike Pence’s book’s release on March 18. Within a day the children’s story topped Amazon’s Bestseller Chart, and sold out in two days. As of March 21, the book had sold 180,000 copies.

Last Sunday, Oliver announced on his show that in response to Pence’s long history with LGBTQ discrimination, he published a parody of “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President” featuring the same bunny. This time however, “our story is about Marlon Bundo, who falls in love with a boy rabbit, because our Marlon Bundo is gay,” said Oliver. The main story arc is about Marlon meeting and seeking to marry his boy rabbit lover (who wears a pair of glasses vaguely resembling Oliver’s own), but a stink bug look-alike Pence tries to stop him. Oliver’s book, penned by “Last Week Tonight” writer Jill Twiss, and illustrated by E.G. Keller, also features a similar cover and illustration style to Pence’s book.

The power of gay bunnies is unstoppable.

Pence’s book centers around his domestic rabbit, Marlon Bundo, who experiences a day tracking the vice president at the Naval Observatory. Charlotte Pence, daughter of the vice president, penned the book and Second Lady Karen Pence, an art therapist, illustrated it.

Both books have beautiful and harmonious watercolor illustrations. You can find pleasure alone admiring the artwork without even reading the text.

Proceeds from both books will be donated to a total of four charities. Profits from Oliver’s book go to the Trevor Foundation, an organization that provides suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth and AIDS United, which fights the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Profits of Pence’s book will be donated to Tracey’s Kids, a kids’ art therapy program, and A21, a non-profit with a mission to end sex trafficking.

Oliver’s book is both educational and politically motivated. The book aims to introduce the values of acceptance and gay marriage to kids, and bother Pence simultaneously. “Buy it for your children or just buy it because you know it would annoy Mike Pence,” Oliver said on his show on Sunday, “you would be doing a nice thing in a really d***ish way.” For someone who loves a good troll, I found Oliver’s comments hilarious.

Oliver’s move sparked an Amazon review battle among readers who are more emotionally involved in the argument than I am. Oliver’s politically charged fans are negatively reviewing Pence’s book and vice versa; each side dissing Oliver or Pence. While I was metaphorically eating popcorn and watching the typing wars unfold, there were a few comments that shook me out of my bubble. For example, a review of Pence’s book stated, “If you are genuinely concerned that your children are going to be intolerant toward sexual minorities, buy the parody book, but the quality and content of it are irrelevant to this work. If you want to teach your kids a little bit about what goes on in the life of a VP from a fun and unique perspective, then this book is great.”

I think the author of the Pence book, Charlotte Pence responded to the tug of war in the most moderate way. She spoke positively of Oliver’s book by uploading an Instagram picture of herself and the real Marlon Bundo captioned, “The only thing better than one bunny book for charity is two bunny books for charity.” She also restated her approval for Oliver’s book in an interview on “Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria,” saying, “his book is contributing to charities that I think we can all get behind. I’m all for it.”

Both books are selling well. As of the week of March 25, Oliver’s “The Day in the Life of” is first place on Amazon’s fiction chart with 4,840 reviews, and Pence’s “Marlon Bundo’s Day” is in 11th on the chart as well with 296 reviews. The Vice President’s daughter also bought Oliver’s book to support it. That’s just pure class.