''Goodnight Bush: A Parody'' () is a book by
Gan Golan and
Erich Origen, former employees of
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld (July 9, 1932 – June 29, 2021) was an American politician, government official and businessman who served as Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under president Gerald Ford, and again from 2001 to 2006 under Presi ...
who met while working at a
dot-com.
Published on May 27, 2008, it takes a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
look back at the presidency of
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
, using the popular children's book ''
Goodnight Moon
''Goodnight Moon'' is an American children's book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It was published on September 3, 1947, and is a highly acclaimed bedtime story.
This book is the second in Brown and Hurd's "cla ...
'' as a jumping off point. Described as a "traumedy" by its authors,
the book touches on issues including
torture,
war for profit, the government's response to
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
, and the hunt for
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
.
The unauthorized parody was submitted unsolicited to the
Little, Brown publishing house in a clear envelope. Although the company had been previously sued for publishing the parody book ''Yiddish with
Dick and Jane'', they decided to publish it under the
fair use doctrine of
copyright law.
Set in a
situation room
The Situation Room, officially known as the John F. Kennedy Conference Room, is a conference room and intelligence management center in the basement of the West Wing of the White House. It is run by the National Security Council staff for the ...
, the story follows President Bush, who appears as a grinning figure in a flight suit
as he prepares for bed. Other characters include
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
as a grumpy figure sitting in a rocking chair with a shotgun (a reference to the
Dick Cheney hunting incident,
and Osama bin Laden as a scurrying mouse, parodying the Bush administration's failure to capture him.
Unlike the original book, which proceeds from 7pm to 8:10pm, the clock on the nightstand is stuck at
9:11,
with the three bears in chairs replaced by "war profiteers giving three cheers".
The book was well-received on its release, with reviewers commenting not only on its humor but also on its close resemblance to ''Goodnight Moon'' in terms of illustrations, rhyming scheme, and even its smell, which was due to the reuse of the original ink and paper.
However, many reviewers also pointed to the dark content of the book, which ends with the
U.S. Constitution in tatters and full of crayoned
redaction
Redaction is a form of editing in which multiple sources of texts are combined and altered slightly to make a single document. Often this is a method of collecting a series of writings on a similar theme and creating a definitive and coherent wo ...
s,
a scale balancing
church and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular stat ...
leaning wholly towards "church",
and a final goodnight to "failures everywhere".
References
External links
Official Website
2008 non-fiction books
American non-fiction books
Books about George W. Bush
{{US-poli-bio-book-stub