Comedian John Oliver and host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” is trolling Vice President Mike Pence in the most adorable and charitable way possible: with Pence’s own bunny, Marlon Bundo.
Marlon Bundo is the Pence family bunny and currently the star of two children’s books—not bad for a creature that eats its own droppings.
Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President was written by Charlotte Pence, the VP’s daughter, and is illustrated by his wife Karen Pence. The idea of the book is to give children a “bunny’s-eye view of the special duties of the vice president,” according to the book’s publisher, Regnery Publishing. Regnery boasts that they publish great conservative books by great conservative authors like the wildly unknown Freddy the Frogcaster series written by Fox News weather personality, Janice Dean.
The second book featuring Marlon is called A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo and was written by Marlon himself, but John Oliver and the Emmy-winning staff at “Last Week Tonight” did most of the heavy lifting.
In this less conservative, but more family friendly book, Marlon tells the story of how he falls in love with another male bunny named Wesley. And as gay bunnies who love each other do, they want to get married. But much like the real life vice president he resembles, the Stink Bug in charge won’t let them.
Love wins, though. It always does. The smart LGBTQ and straight animals vote out the Stink Bug and make new, more inclusive laws that allow Marlon and Wesley to hop happily ever after.
In an interview with Ellen, Oliver reminds us that Pence is not a friend to the LGBTQ community. He has supported harmful conversion therapies meant to heal and pray the gay out of individuals and has voted against laws that would allow marriage equality and LGBTQ rights and protections. So Oliver’s motivation to release his version of Marlon’s story, a gay bunny who finds love, was “…because that’s the world we want to live in.”
He also referenced his two-year-old son, Hudson: “Part of this reason of writing this book was so that I could read something to him which kind of paints the world in the light you want it to be rather than the way it’s currently being painted.”
I am a gay, married mama living in this world, and the palette is dark sometimes. But stories like this give me hope. Not only did Oliver release his Marlon book on the same day the Pence version was released, but it also sold out in two days, climbed to the top of Amazon’s best-selling list, and is outselling the book it was inspired by.
And not only is A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo raising awareness, teaching acceptance, and providing representation for a lot of LGBTQ family and individuals, but proceeds from the book are also going to great causes. The Trevor Project and AIDS United are the two organizations benefiting from the sale of this amazing children’s book.
The Trevor Project works to prevent suicide in LGBTQ youth and has saved many lives with its ongoing education and crisis intervention hotline. AIDS United is working to end aids by fighting for Americans living with and at risk for HIV.
And if all of this isn’t enough, an audio version of the book is available and features big names like Jim Parsons, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and John Lithgow.
Not that you need a special occasion or any extra reason to buy A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, but it would make a great Easter basket gift.
Bunnies and Easter go together like gays and brunch. And on Easter Sunday you can have it all.