Pat the Bunny Spoofs

For Christmas, one of my stocking stuffers (put there by my amazing daughter) was a copy of Pat the Zombie, subtitled: A Cruel Adult Spoof. And cruel it is. Paul and Judy torture a poor zombie bunny, gutting it (Now YOU gut the zombie.) and perform other nasty activities, each one mimicking the original. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say, and of course this book wouldn't sell without thousands of adults like myself who remember Pat the Bunny with such fondness. Growing up, there always seemed to be a copy about, no doubt because our household contained four children spaced seven years apart.

The original touch-and-feel book, Pat the Bunny, written by Dorothy Kunhardt (who created the book for her three-year-old daughter Edith), was published in 1940 and so far has sold more than 7 million copies. There's even an app for it, surprise, surprise. Edith, paid tribute to her mom by writing and illustrating her own book, Pat the Cat, as well as several others.

Besides the authors of the recent Pat the Zombie, other writers have sharpened their quills and taken aim at the classic. There's Pat the Yuppie (1986), Pat the Politician (2004), Pat the Husband (2008), Pat the Bride (2009), and Pat the Daddy (2010).

My all-time favorite parody is Henrik Drescher's Pat the Beastie (1993). Unlike the other spoofs, this one is meant for kids, and along with the inventive activities (kids get to scratch and sniff Beastie's stinky feet, play peekaboo with Beastie behind a shower curtain, and poke his boogers), little ones learn a subtle message: it's not a good idea to mistreat animals. I'll say no more.