LGBT Book, Film & Video Blog

Is "Goodnight Bush: A Parody," the recently published parody of the best-selling children's classic "Goodnight Moon," supposed to be laugh-out-loud funny or heaving-sigh sad?

The authors - San Franciscan Erich Origen and Los Angeles resident Gan Golan - prefer the term "traumedy." As in, they're trying to wrap eight traumatic years of the nation's history in a few good laughs. It's full of lines like "And a quiet Dick Cheney whispering 'hush.' " The accompanying image: The vice president, wearing bunny slippers, with a shotgun across his lap.

Riffing off the familiar, somnolent rhythms and dreamy illustrations of Margaret Wise Brown's children's classic, "Goodnight Bush" stands to become a popular American political parody - it was No. 507 Tuesday on Amazon.com's overall chart, and No. 2 among parodies just a week after its release. The book is a visual critique of the Bush administration, from the culture wars to the Iraq War, with the only constant being George W. Bush, clad in a "Mission Accomplished"-era flight suit, curled up on his bed.

The clock on his nightstand is permanently set at 9:11. On the mantle is the scale of justice, which at the book's beginning is balanced between church and state. By the end, the scale leans entirely toward the church; the Capitol has a cross atop its dome. Burning in the fireplace is a ballot box marked "Ohio 2004."

Some of the details aren't subtle, but one has to scour every corner of Origen and Golan's parody, lest they be passed over for a comb, a mouse or a bowl full of mush. Indeed, while a mouse scurried around in the original, in "Goodnight Bush," a mouse-sized Osama bin Laden scampers about, still on the loose.

'Goodnight Bush'

Erich Origen and Gan Golan's "traumedy" stands to become a popular American political parody.