John Oliver’s Gay Bunny Book is Outselling The Mike Pence Book It Spoofed

– John Oliver is outselling Mike Pence in the battle of the bunny-based children’s books. CBS News reports that A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, the Jill Twiss-written book Oliver revealed on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight to spoof the Pence family’s Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President, has hit #1 on Amazon’s best-seller chart. That puts it five spots above the Pence’s book, which is about the family’s pet rabbit and sits at #6.

Oliver revealed the book on Last Week Tonight in reaction to the original book doing a tour around the country that includes a stop at Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family is a conservative religious group that supported gay conversion until 2009. The Pence book is actually written by Pence’s daughter Charlotte with illustrations by the vice president’s wife Karen.

Oliver noted about Twiss’ book, “Now, there are a few small differences between the two books. You’ll notice right away that our rabbit has a bow tie. So there’s that. Also, our story is about Marlon Bundo falling in love with another boy rabbit, because our Marlon Bundo is gay, just like the real Marlon Bundo.”

He added, “And that may be completely clear about this. This is actually a book for children. This is a real book for children. This isn’t some adult book telling Mike Pence to go f**k himself, although in buying it, that’s exactly what you would be doing. This is a sweet story about Marlon Bundo falling in love.”

Proceeds for the Last Week Tonight book go to AIDS United and the Trevor Project, the latter of which helps prevent suicide among gay youth. Charlotte has reacted to the book by saying, “His book is contributing to charities that I think we can all get behind… I’m all for it.” Proceeds from her book are being donated to charities Tracy’s Kids and A21, which are an art-therapy program for children with cancer and a non-profit that works to end human trafficking, respectively.