10 Literary Parodies That Work

Well, at least there’s one decidedly delicious thing to have come out of the 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon. Quite literally delicious: this week sees the release of 50 Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook, which details the sordid adventures of a young, inexperienced chicken as she gets her breasts and thighs handled by a chef — while serving up some excellent recipes for roasting chicken as well. It’s enough to make you snort that cooking wine right out of your nose. Inspired by this new and hilarious release, we’ve put together a list of ten literary parodies that totally work on their own merit — no mere joke books these. Click through to see which we chose, and if we missed your favorite parody, be sure to add it to our list in the comments.

Fifty Shades of Chicken: A Parody in a Cookbook, FL Fowler

Here’s just a little taste for you, from the recipe for “Popped-Cherry Pullet” (and don’t forget to watch the book trailer when you’re done).

He fixes me suddenly with a predatory stare. “We’re going to remedy this situation right now.”
“What situation?” I ask, alarmed.
“Your situation. You’re utterly unseasoned. I’m contemplating haute cuisine with you, when you’ve never been paired with anything, it seems.” He cocks his head to the side.
Paired? My inner goddess pulls her head from under her wing.
“I’m going to make dinner with you right now. We’ll begin with something sweet, soft, and juicy.”
Holy shit.
“I thought you didn’t make dinner,” I say, my heart pounding. “I thought you just cooked, um, hard.”
I hear his stomach growl deeply, the effects of which travel all the way to my tail at the base of my cavity — down there.

Filed Under:

Post comment as twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest

The best literary parody I've read comes from Roy Blount, Jr.'s "Exercise Books Aren't Aerobic" (reprinted in Now, Where Were We?), in which he imagines how American literary luminaries would write an exercise book, and nails each one. As an example, Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Hence, instead of Man Exercising, we have the exercisist, who values the sit-up as such. That man is seated; more sedentary than he knows. I had better never know of a workout than to be enthralled by its representation in a Work of Exercise."

Back when Richard Bach was riding high on the best-seller charts with "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", there were several parodies including "Marvin Stanley Pigeon", published in the "New Yorker" magazine in 1972, and a trade paperback called "Jonathan Segal Chicken" by Sol Weinstein and Howard Albrecht (pub 1973).

After almost 50 years, The Pooh Perplex remains as biting and funny as ever. I keep waiting for a second edition with postmodern, feminist, queer, reactionary conservative readings of Pooh.