A children’s picture book released by comedian John Oliver about a gay bunny has hit the top spot on Amazon, outselling a vanilla version featuring US vice-president’s Mike Pence’s pet rabbit.
The satirical doppelganger titled Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo was strategically released by the British late-night TV host a day before Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President, which was written by Pence’s daughter Charlotte and illustrated by his wife, Karen.
Within two days of its release, Oliver’s Marlon Bundo had sold 180,000 copies on Amazon and become the bestselling book on the site, outstripping the Pence version which at the time of writing languished in fourth place.
The Pence book tells the tale of Marlon Bundo trailing his master for a day, but Oliver’s version, written by comedian and staff writer Jill Twiss, is about “a lonely bunny who lives with his grampa, the vice-president of the United States” who one day “falls in love with another boy bunny”.
Oliver’s book explores the rabbit’s struggle to marry a handsome bunny called Wesley, and is a tale “of tolerance and advocacy ... [exploring] issues of same-sex marriage and democracy”.
Meet Marlon Bundo, a lonely bunny who lives with his Grampa, the Vice President of the United States. But when Marlon meets Wesley and falls in love, his life changes forever. pic.twitter.com/XfkCUeFt6m
— Chronicle Books (@ChronicleBooks) March 19, 2018
Proceeds from Oliver’s book, which is “dedicated to every bunny who has ever felt different”, go to Aids United and the LGBTQ charity the Trevor Project.
Pence is staunchly opposed to gay marriage, warning in 2006 it would lead to the “deterioration of the family” and “societal collapse”.
On Sunday Oliver encouraged his viewers to purchase his book, saying: “Selling more books than Pence will probably really piss him off.”
The two books’ release sparked a buying and review war between the vice-president’s fans and his detractors. Haters left one-star reviews beneath Pence’s book, while his fans fought back with five-star reviews.
One outraged reviewer wrote they bought the Pence book “in response to Mr Oliver’s hate-filled diatribe”.
One reviewer wrote beneath Oliver’s book: “After successfully completing my conversion (shock) therapy sessions with Focus on the Family, I found this book sitting on the bus stop corner. After reading three times over, I never knew the struggles of Mr Marlon Bundo could be so pertinent to our nation’s struggles but also our own internal ones. From here on out, only male bunnies for me.”