Pat the Zombie

Our friends Max, Chris, and Nat Cooper gave us the book Pat the Bunny to read to our future son, but here's a new take on a classic book from Boing Boing:

When my kids were little they loved it when my wife and I read Pat the Bunny to them. The crudely drawn illustrations and pastel colors were half the charm of this book; the real fun was the interactivity. On one page you could pat the bunny's soft fur. On another page you could scratch and sniff some flowers. On another page you could feel daddy's unshaven cheek.

Now that my daughters are older (8, and 13) they still occasionally like to flip through the book (I do, too!). But they whooped with delight when I showed them this amazing parody of Pat the Bunny called Pat that Zombie. The drawing style, colors, and interactive features on each two-page spread match the original page-for-page, except with creepy zombie scenes replacing the warm and cuddly ones. Instead of patting the bunny, little Judy eviscerates a bunny, exposing its slimy entrails. InsteaYoud of sniffing flowers, young Paul catches a whiff of the decaying, bloated remains of a zombie victim. Instead of feeling Daddy's scratchy beard, Judy feels Daddy's putrefying face. I posted a video of part of the book, but I didn't want to spoil the fun of the rest of the pages so I stopped after the first few spreads.

Far too often, parodies are poorly done and not very funny. I think it's because they don't honor the things that they are parodying. Pat the zombie is a rare example of a parody done right.