John Oliver Goes to War with Mike Pence Using a Book About Gay Bunnies

John Oliver has exactly one nice thing to say about Mike Pence: he likes that the vice president has a pet rabbit named Marlon Bundo. That bunny got some national attention earlier this month, when the family announced that Pence’s daughter Charlottehad written a children’s book about the critter, titled Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President. Pence’s wife, Karen, drew the illustrations for the book as well.

But while Oliver can begrudgingly admit that Marlon Bundo is “an objectively good name for a bunny,” he dislikes everything else about the V.P. In a lengthy segment on Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, Oliver took his distaste to the next level by announcing that staff writer Jill Twiss had penned her own version of a Bundo book. Here’s the twist: it’s about two boy bunnies falling in love, its audiobook features out stars like Jim Parsons and RuPaul, and it is literally available to buy right now. Oh, and all proceeds go to the L.G.B.T.Q. nonprofit organization the Trevor Project.

By buying the book, “you’d be doing a nice thing in a really dickish way—and isn’t that the dream at the end of the day?” Oliver said, in an appeal to his viewers.

This revelation was the juicy plot twist of a 20-minute segment that dragged Pence and his policies, dismantling the veep’s reputation for being the “old, boring, principled contrast to Donald Trump.” Oliver went down a laundry list of Pence’s greatest hits and misses, including his ability to dodge questions about Trump’s most brazen lies, his old-fashioned belief that women shouldn’t serve in the military, and his long-held stance against the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

Oliver went deepest on that latter issue, focusing on his involvement with the Christian conservative organization Focus on the Family, a group that opposes same-sex marriage and has promoted conversion therapy in the past. This is when Oliver decided to turn his attention to Bundo, legitimately the “most likable thing about an otherwise unlikable man.”

While the late-night host was ready to enjoy Bundo and his silly new book without reservation, he noticed that one of the stops on the Bundo book tour included a Focus on the Family event in Colorado.

“So congratulations, Pence, you even managed to ruin Marlon Bundo!” he exclaimed. “Now, none of us can enjoy a book about your rabbit—or can we?”

That’s when Oliver pulled out the Last Week team’s Bundo book, officially throwing down the gauntlet. Not only was the book made available on Sunday, one day before the Pence family’s version, with a title suspiciously similar to that of the other book—but it’s also available on the pettily named Web sites betterbundobook.com and focusonthefurmily.com.

“This is actually a book for children,” Oliver reiterated. “This isn’t some adult book telling Mike Pence to go fuck himself—although, in buying it, that’s exactly what you would be doing.”

Get Vanity Fair’s HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Full ScreenPhotos:Every Best-Actress Winner in Oscar History2018: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.Photo: By David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock.2017, Emma Stone, La La Land, in GivenchyPhoto: By Christopher Polk/Getty Images.2016, Brie Larson, Room, in Gucci.Photo: By Christopher Polk/Getty Images.2014, Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, in Armani Privé.1930: Norma Shearer, The Divorcee, in Gilbert Adrian.1972: Jane Fonda, Klute, in Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.1969: Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl, in Arnold Scassi & Katharine Hepburn,* The Lion in Winter.*PreviousNext

Yohana DestaYohana Desta is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.