The Hunger Pains: A Parody— Better Than Nightlight

The Hunger Pains: A Parody by The Harvard Lampoon

The Hunger Pains: A Parody is a parody of Susanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. The Hunger Pains: A Parody,is written by The Harvard Lampoon. The Harvard Lampoon is also the author of Nightlight (a parody of Twilight) and Bored of the Rings (a parody of The Lord of the Rings). Having read Nightlight, and not liking it that much, I can say that The Hunger Pains: A Parody is a much better book than Nightlight. While I have not read Bored of the Rings, I would like to read it in the future.

The Harvard Lampoon changes the characters’ names in The Hunger Pains: A Parody. Instead of Katniss Everdeen, the main character’s name is Kantkiss Neverclean. Instead of Peeta Mellark, the love interest’s name is Pita Malarkey. Gale Hawthorne becomes Carol Handsomestein. Effie becomes Effu. Katniss’s sister Prim becomes Prin, which is short for Princess. One of Kantkiss and Pita’s competitors in the Hunger Games is named Archie Nemesis. Archie Nemesis is a play on words; Archie Nemesis is not a very nice character. In fact, he’s a ruthless killer.

Description of Winning The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games used to be an eating contest, but quickly became a fight to the death in which one tribute was named the victor after killing all the other tributes. There is a lot of emphasis on food, especially in the depiction of Pita Malarkey. Pita is obsessed with food, and is always eating something. Pita is also depicted as being needy, whiny, and fat. In The Hunger Games, Peeta suffers a serious leg injury; in The Hunger Pains: A Parody, Pita suffers from a bloody finger.

Kantkiss and Run in a comic book version of The Hunger Pains

Instead of being an alcoholic like he is in The Hunger Games, Haymitch’s character Buttich in The Hunger Pains: A Parody is a gambler. He bets on everything, including the tributes he’s in charge of. He predicts that Pita will die and Kantkiss will die fourth. Rue has been changed to Run, a baby who makes stinky poo. A lot of the characters fart. At Super Fun Day, everyone in the crowd puts their middle finger in the air.

I did not like that Pita dies on the operating table during a breast reduction surgery. I thought it was weird that he came back to life as a chubby puppy with a bagel around its neck. I thought it was weird how Kantkiss fell for Archie Nemesis, even though Archie doesn’t even like her. Archie’s allergy to puppies was pretty interesting. I liked how Kantkiss played with the puppies, but why were there puppies there in the first place? I thought it was disgusting when Pita blew his nose on a hamburger bun and then Buttich ate it and exclaimed that he didn’t know these things had mayonnaise on them.

Overall, I thought The Hunger Pains: A Parody was pretty silly. I laughed out loud many times. Some aspects of The Hunger Games have been taken out or changed. Some parts of The Hunger Pains: A Parody were made up. I would recommend The Hunger Pains: A Parody to fans of The Hunger Games and fans of humor. I would give The Hunger Pains: A Parody a B, because it was good, but not great.