'Last Week Tonight' host John Oliver trolls Vice President Mike Pence with a book about a gay rabbit

Pence has “even managed to ruin Marlon Bundo," John Oliver said.

March 22, 2018, 8:03 AM

A book showdown is underway, and the Pence family pet bunny is in the center of it all.

His name is Marlon Bundo, and he probably has more Instagram followers than you on his verified account.

Second lady Karen Pence and daughter Charlotte released “Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President,” a children’s book written and illustrated by the Pence women, starring Mr. Bundo.

The two women are on a book tour, which caught the attention of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver Sunday.

The show focused primarily on Vice President Pence, but Oliver mentioned that Marlon Bundo was one thing he liked about President Donald Trump’s second in command.

A bunny book tour event will be hosted next Monday in Colorado by Focus on the Family, a conservative group that is against same-sex marriage and has promoted so-called sexual orientation conversion therapy.

The vice president has been associated with Focus on the Family in the past; he spoke at the organization’s 40th anniversary celebration in June.

Oliver mentioned the connection and remarked, in disappointment, that Pence “[managed to ruin] Marlon Bundo.”

Consequently, Oliver announced that his staff writer has created a second children’s book about the rabbit; this one titled “A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo.”

In this fictional tale, the rabbit falls in love and marries another boy rabbit.

The book soon became Amazon’s No. 1 seller, while the original Pence book holds the No. 4 best-seller spot.

Money from the Oliver book will be donated to AIDS United and the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focusing on suicide prevention within the LGBT community.

And the book doesn’t seem to bother the Pence women.

“I think imitation is the most sincere form of flattery in a way. But in all seriousness, his book is contributing to charities that I think we can all get behind,” Charlotte Pence said in a Fox Business interview as her mom nodded in agreement.

“We have two books that are giving to charities that are about bunnies,” she said, “so I’m all for it.”