The Hunger Pains: A Parody

Lampoon Parodies

by The Harvard Lampoon

WINNING MEANS WEALTH, FAME, AND A LIFE OF THERAPY LOSING MEANS DEATH, BUT ALSO FAME! THIS IS THE HUNGER PAINS

When Kantkiss Neverclean replaces her sister as a contestant on the Hunger Games—the second-highest-rated reality TV show in Peaceland, behind Extreme Home Makeover—she has no idea what to expect. Having lived her entire life in the telemarketing district’s worst neighborhood, the Crack, Kantkiss feels unprepared to fight to the death while simultaneously winking and looking adorable for the cameras. But when her survival rests on choosing between the dreamy hunk from home, Carol Handsomestein, or the doughy klutz, Pita Malarkey, Kantkiss discovers that the toughest conflicts may not be found on the battlefield but in her own heart . . . which is unfortunately on a battlefield.

Genres: Humor, Young Adult, Fiction, Dystopia, Comedy, Science Fiction, Fantasy

176 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

Reviews

[Lia Carstairs]

I think I might've died a little🤡

━━━━━━━●━━━━━━━

Pre-read Review:
"When Kantkiss Neverclean..."

"But when her survival rests on choosing between the dreamy hunk from home, Carol Handsomestein, or the doughy klutz, Pita Malarkey..."

OH GOD HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS😭😂

[Taschima · Rating 1 out of 5]

You can find more reviews @BloodyBookaholic

I finally made it through that. It was hard to make myself read till the very end, but I managed it! I give myself props for that, and I will tell you why.

First off, this was supposed to be a parody am I not correct? Well, where is the funny? I can count the amount of times I CHUCKLED while reading this book with one of my hands. I have a sense of humor, I am not one of those readers who gets offended if someone makes a joke about a book I like, but if it's not a funny joke I'm not gonna laugh! This book was just written because The Hunger Games is all the hype now and they wanted to take a stab at it. They did it with Twilight (and that one was actually kind of funny) but this one? They couldn't get a funny angle on it! Some of the "funny" points of the book include:

-Peeta (in the book Pita) is super fat, loves to eat, and can't move from point A to point B without needing assistance. First off, why would this be funny? With better writing I could see someone making a joke out of Peeta being SO IN LOVE with Katniss (her name in the parody is Kantkiss, ha ha... not). But no, they decided to play on the fat jokes, and trust me they don't make you laugh at all.

-Gale (in the book his name is Carol... why again?) is super into himself and is always plaging Kantkiss' thoughts. Again with better writing I could potentially get into this, but it really had no comic effect in the story. None what so ever.

-Rue (Run in the book) is a baby. LITERALLY. She is a freaking baby (quite deadly at that; she manages to kill a couple of people). I just... no. What's even badder (if that is even a word) is that they use the farts jokes with her. Please just stop it, you are making it worse.

-Kantkiss is just a narrator throughout the story with no original voice of her own. She is incredibly naivee and holds more of her share of stupid stocks. You are killing me book.

At least if you are going to poke fun at a book (which I am totally for) do it in a funny way! With GOOD writing! This book seems like someone scrambled to put it together at the very last minute with a lot of bad outdated jokes (much like Cinna does in the book with Kantkiss's dresses- at one point she was a mummy made out of toilet paper, sounds funny in theory but in the book is torture). And god it took me so long to finish, I had to make myself sit down and finish it because I wanted to have the right to say to you guys that I finished this book in its entirety and it sucked. The most enjoyable part of The Hunger Pains in my opinion was when the hovercraft people collected the dead bodies and we got a glimpse of what they were talking about, which was their boring day to day lives. By the end of the book I even wanted Kantkiss to die to know how Dave was doing (the last convo he wanted to open his own fish restaurant but needed help in getting money for said opening, I hope everything works out for you Dave).

And because I don't want to seen as being completely negative (even though this is the first book I have given a one star to in over 2 years) here is one of the parts that made me chuckle:

"Just as I'm realizing how difficult it will be to dig a hole with my bare hands, a parachute drops down containing a metal shove. Great, another brainteaser from buttitch. What could it mean?

...

That's when I understand the meaning of the shovel, and with a quick smack on the back of the head, Pita is out like a light."

I would have looked for the other one that made me chuckle, but I don't want to go through it again. Please don't make me.

[KP · Rating 4 out of 5]

*****Contains Spoliers*****

I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of The Hunger Games. Yes, it's making fun of one of the best books ever, but it had me laughing out loud. I'm glad no one was around when I was reading this because they probably would have thought I was crazy.

I loved the characters names: Kantkiss Neverclean, Effu Poorpeople, Buttitch Totalapathy, Cinnabon...

If you don't find yourself saying: "May da odds be eva in ya fava, mon," outloud at least three times with a Jamaican accent, then I don't know where your sense of humor is hidden.

Oh, and I was rolling on the floor laughing when the "lullaby" was a verse from Gangsters Paradise.

If you're gonna get your panties in a wad because your favorite book is being made fun of, then I don't recommend this one.

If you're looking for something quick and laugh out loud funny, then start reading today.

[Jessa]

The "Editorial Reviews" for this on Amazon crack me up :p

Editorial Reviews
Review
"The Hunger Pains really struck a chord with me." —Kantkiss, protagonist of The Hunger Pains

"Instead of the Bible, rooms should come with a copy of The Hunger Pains." —Sheraton Hotel Memo

"This book makes me wish I'd never been shot." —Abraham Lincoln

"The book always falls through my hands, but in an undeniably funny way." —A Ghost

[❀~Amy~❀ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, but sadly I found the 15 pages I have read so far completely stupid. I'm not even sure I am going to be able to read the rest of it.

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, Harvard. What have you come to? I mean, you’re supposedly one of the best educational institutions that the United States has to offer, but if the Harvard Lampoon is the standard by which your brilliance can be measured, America has even more serious problems than I realized. The Hunger Pains is cheap capitalization off of a popular franchise, rather than a clever satire or parody of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games.

Of course, it is much harder to be impressed by parodies of things that I enjoy, but, even if I loathed The Hunger Games, I doubt this mess of juvenile humor would have entertained me. The Hunger Pains might amuse a drunken frat boy audience, but that’s probably about the extent of the ideal audience here. Actual fans of The Hunger Games will find little to amuse, though there were a couple of things that did make me laugh inwardly, and when I say a couple I really mean two. Peeta fans should be especially leery of this “effort.”

Read the full review at A Reader of Fictions.

[Kayla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe it's that I really enjoyed reading The Hunger Games and don't appreciate such a good book being dissed or maybe it's just that I didn't like the parody. In my opinion, this book was just awful. It was really hard to get through this book because it was just so bad. What made it bad was that the the puns weren't even funny. Rue was an infant named Run who was also a genius and an assassin, the games started off at the Cornucrapia, Pita's injury was a tiny cut on his pointer finger, Kantkiss Neverclean was incredibly dense and idiotic and Effie's name was Effu Poorpeople. It was just terrible that I read it with a straight face, zoned out because it was incredibly boring and didn't crack a smile even once. I do not recommend this book to anyone with a brain. I wouldn't even recommend this book to the child that was born without a brain even if he could read. Simply terrible. If I could I would have this book banned for fear that if people read it they would suffer from severe retardation that could only be cured with audio readings of good, intellegent books like The Odessy or a few hundred medical books.

[Sena Nur Işık · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beklediğimden daha eğlenceli ve hayatımda okuduğum ilk parodi kitaptı. Bu yüzden sevdim 😍

[Shaina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Must say I was a little disappointed by this book. I read Nightlight, by The Harvard Lampoon and I loved it, it proved to be hysterical Sadly this book lacked funny. Where it seemed things were supposed to be funny they were just stupid snide things. These things are a hit or miss. Sadly for me it was a miss.

[Lacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sigh this was really dumb...

[LK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Juvenile Humor. There were some fairly funny parts, the names of certain characters and districts for instance. However, the main points that had been primarily parodied (the "teen- romance" aspect and Kantkiss' boycraziness especially), I feel were less the point of the original and so came across more asinine than anything else under the funhouse-scope. And actually, if we are being completely honest, disrespectful to Suzanne Collins.

This was a very quick read, less than two hundred pages. It took me a night and a lot of forcing to get through the baser sections. Overall I think that the flow of the parody could have gone a lot easier if the writer(s)would have gone less for making the "action" sections as incoherent as possible to follow and toned it back on making Kantkiss (the Katniss mirror-character) a complete moron just for the sake of making the piece have the tone of a standard Teen novel.

Maybe I just expect more out of parody?

[Tiernan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think The Hunger Pains was really well done. It's funny while at the same time not really making fun of The Hunger Games; the funny parts were just quirky twists in the plot and characters. It's nothing to be taken too seriously. I would recommend it if you can take a joke and appreciate a good laugh.

[Selin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bu yorumu blogumda da bulabilirsiniz :)
Heyecanla aldığım bu kitabında bitiminde büyük bir hayal kırıklığı yaşadım. Parodilerden çok şey beklememek gerekir ama en azından komik olmalıydı,birazcık bile komik değildi. Anlayamadığım koskoca seriden çıkara çıkara bu espirileri mi çıkardı?
Komikten çok hani küçük çocukların kaka deyip gülmeleri tarzı bir mizah anlayışı vardı yazarın,açıkçası ne durumdayken yazmış merak etmedim değil,tabii elalemin ülkesinde türk kahvesi yok ki içsin ayılsın...
Pegasus yayınlarından da hiç beklemezdim,sırf ticari bir amaç gözetilmişti,gerçi bence para için bile bu kitap çıkarılmazdı. Çeviri de ahım şahım değildi,zaten orjinal dilindeki kelime oyunları kaybolmuştu,ben bundan daha zorlu kitapları daha iyi çevirilerle okudum,başarılmayacak şey değildi bu kitabın çevirisi.
Arada suratımın tebessüm ettiği yerler oldu,ama 170-180 sayfa bir kitabı 2-3 orta kalitede espiri kurtaramadı elbette.
Düşünüyorum film olsa daha iyi olur muydu? Belki olabilirdi,çünkü yazarın yazım tarzı o kadar karmaşıktı ki bence sırf bu yüzden bile bir kaç yıldız aldı götürdü.
Son olarak kimseye tavsiye etmem,belki 9-10 yaşlarında bir çocuk zevk alabilir en fazla...

[Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it very ironic how I thought of The Hunger Pains as a title for a parody of The Hunger Games. And now it is.

[Cait S · Rating 1 out of 5]

...I've heard about The Harvard Lampoon for years. I'm confused because I was told they were funny.

[Annie Brewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this review is gonna be shorter than normal! I normally don't read these parody books because they're stupid. But Ummmmm this book was ummm....Fucking hilarious!! I went to bed the last couple of nights with a pain in my stomach from laughing so hard. I even cried real tears!!! I probably have a sick sense of humor. But what the Hell, laughing is the best medicine! This book was genius! Seriously I loved it. The premise was the same but also different. The characters were the Freakin bomb!! The names made me laugh so hard I collapsed to the floor numerous time. I think I scared my kids a few times cause they thought I was hurt.....but really I was crying from.hysterics. Omg this book is awesome! I don't like making fun of my favorite series but this was just too funny. And I don't consider it making fun anyway. These characters were dumber than a box of rocks. We all know that's not really Peeta or Katniss. It's kind of like any Jim Carrey movie that's so stupid yet its funny as Shit which makes it my favorite movie. So don't judge me for liking this. I am sick and demented! So it works.

[Susan Barhydt bielecki · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Hunger Pains" is a perfect title for this book because it was truly painful to try to read through it.
Being a Fan of the Hunger Games series I figured I'd give this a try. After-all, who doesn't need some comic relief once in awhile?? However, with lines like "I hunt for my family because my father can no longer provide for us. Don't worry, it's not because he's lazy or anything - It's because he's dead" AND "Not one person in the crowd claps. It's dead silent. One person farts". I just couldn't even make it past Chapter 3. To the authors credit, he is following the story line closely from what I could tell in the few chapter I DID manage to read, however, the writing is so pathetic that my 10 year old could have done a better job. In my opinion, unless you are a die-hard fan, drunk and just can't pass it up, don't waste your time!! I would have given this a tenth of a star if I could have.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so bad, that if it were an option, I would give it 0 stars. I get that it's a parody and maybe I would like their Twilight parody better because I hated Twilight, but this wasn't even funny to me. First of all, their humor was bad (they called Haymitch, Buttitch for one... seriously??) and I felt the whole story was just overall crappy (but maybe that's because I really enjoyed The Hunger Games, so it kind of irks me that people would make fun of it... I guess I should have expected that going in). The only redeeming quality of this book is that it was super short, so thankfully my misery was short-lived.

[Lexi · Rating 1 out of 5]

The hunger pains was the WORST parody I had ever read! The names were stupid and don't even get me started with the ending. After the first 15 pages of the book, I was thinking "kill me now!". I can't believe I even made it through the entire book!! Parodies are supposed to be funny. There was nothing funny about this book, and I should know because I have a sense of humor. Also, the way their hunger games was arranged was awful! The trombone instead of the canon, the nose tapping instead of the reaping, the puppies instead of the mutts, ugh!! If you love the actual book, the Hunger Games, I'd advise not to read this parody.

[Bukhtawar Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really funny and a hilarious parody of the Hunger Games, I also love the Hunger Games so this was awesome. I suggest reading the Hunger games before reading this so it would become more understandable. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy humor.

[Ramón · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me reí mucho con este libro.
Creo que nunca me había reído tanto con un libro y este libro se pasa muuuuuy rápido. Aparte de tener una perspectiva cómica de una película que es de mis favoritas.

"May the odds ever be in your favor."

[Kathleen (Kat) Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, that's right! You've read the title correctly! The Harvard Lampoon has taken the book The Hunger Games and made a parody out of it. For those of you that love The Hunger Games and aren't afraid of some great humor along the way, then you will LOVE this book.

In this complete parody on literally everything associated with the Hunger Games, we find ourselves being introduced to District 12's Kantkiss Neverclean who is on her way to meet Carol Handsomestein for a little hunting practice to gain food since in this District ruled by the Capital, there isn't enough food. So using all their vital hunting skills, Kantkiss and Carol, dodge chain link fence, some one line jokes on their way to their first kill, a lowly cow grazing in the pasture. As they divide the Top Sirlion from the New York Strip, the face the dawn of Super Fun Day. The day in which a tribute is chosen from each district, a boy and girl, to compete in a challenge to the death in a series of games.

The parody is literally non stop as you read through each paragraph and each subtle new character is introduced, from Kantkiss's partner from District 12, Pita Malarkey to their stylist, Cinnabon, who prepares them to meet their challengers in the Hunger Games. The parody cleverly tackles the themes of morality, government control, and personal independence with the Harvard Lampoon's signature wit.

I received a copy of the Hunger Pains compliments of Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster publishers for my honest review. Being huge Hunger Pains fans, I had to read this one. I was quite literally reading this out loud to my husband and we were laughing and smirking all night long. I would easily rate this one a 4 out of 5 stars, and some of the humor in parts of the book can be borderline sexual in nature. With that being said, if you love parody's of your favorite movies or books, then this one will be a must have in your collection. I can almost see this one coming to the big screen as is featured in the book trailer, which was quite well done!

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Hunger Pains: A Parody, a book written by The Harvard Lampoon, is a parody of the original book The Hunger Games. It is an attempt to make fun of every single aspect of the original book, and a pretty pathetic attempt.

First of all, the book starts out in the Crack, the ghetto-themed version of the Seam. All of the original characters have half-funny names that have been recreated to make fun of them. For example, Peeta is spelled Pita (a reference to his baker status) and Katniss's last name is Neverclean (a reference to her poor hygiene, being from District 12). District 12 is the telemarketing district, which is actually pretty funny.

The Capitol is a rip-off of Disneyland in Florida. The actual arena is just like the one in the original book, a forest and mountain valley. What happens in the arena is almost EXACTLY what happens in the original but with decent attempts at making them funny. Rue turns out to be a 6-month old baby which completely destroys her character. They should have just left out the entire character if they wanted to make Rue that way.

Without letting out too many spoilers, the end is completely twisted from the original. But the way that the Lampoon writer(s) twisted it made the ending turn out to be completely uneventful and not funny at all.

Overall, the book was pretty funny, but nothing genius. It followed too much of the original story-line and left out too much detail, making it a relatively short book. I think it could have been made much better but, the odds weren't in my favor.

[Lilian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a fan of The Hunger Games series (and yes, I read it before the movie because I'm so hipster), and when I saw The Hunger Pains: A Parody at the library-I just had to grab it off the shelf. It looked like a perfect short read (though fourteen bucks for such a tiny book baffles me.) I've read The Harvard Lampoon's Twilight parody titled Nightlight , so I had an idea of what I was getting into: ridiculousness. Imagine 5% of the original Hunger Games mixed with lame fart jokes, Saturday Night Live, Jamaican accents, completely randomness, and no wit. The Hunger Pains is completely silly, the writing is laughably simplistic (reminiscent of the crazy stories I wrote as a kid with my friends), the characters borderline inane, but I enjoyed The Hunger Pains . The story was just so absurd, I couldn't help giggling at its ridiculousness: Pita (incredibly fat with manboobs and constantly needs attention) in an effort to camouflage himself, turns himself into a wedding cake. If you didn't think that was funny, this book isn't for you.

I can see readers either go one way or the other: either they embrace the randomness, or be butthurt that their favorite characters are parodied as undesirable messes.

[Fancywaffle7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story takes place in the dreary District 12, opening on a scene as the main character, Kantkiss Neverclean, is waking up to the sounds of a growling stomach. She explains briefly about the events that take place on Super Fun Day which just so happens to be that day.
Through-out the story the Harvard Lampoon writes witty, funny conversations and scenarios about Kantkiss and her other companions.
You start to like this version of Katniss better than the real, stuck up one from Hunger Games. Though some characters are rather a let down. Take Pita Malarkey foor example; he's really one of the best characters in the Hunger Games but Hunger Pains makes you dislike him as much as you dislike the original Katniss.
Other than just a few things that were way to silly and immature, this book has made me laugh more than i have laughed in months within the first 5 pages. Although i do not recommend to younger audiences because some of the language is inappropriate and strange at times.
If you've read Hunger Games and loved it but need a laugh after all the death and misfortune, I highly suggest you read this book.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I set this book down, it definitely was with some sadness, as I've absolutely loved reading it!

I had never heard of this book before seeing it in Mrs. Eaton's classroom the other day. After I scanned the back cover, I knew I just had to read it. Being what I like to think a pretty funny guy, I appreciate all attempts at humor and this book did not disappoint. While I was read the book sometimes, I would burst out laughing due to a funny line almost every single page!

I never would have expected this book to be so funny when I was scanning the bookshelf, but I'm glad I made the decision to read it. I had never thought of before the author's interesting portrayal of the characters. Through their comical portrayal of previously scary characters as the puny ones, it made for an entirely new read.

In the future I'm definitely going to look forward to reading more works by this author. Hopefully the Harvard Lampoon will continue to write these comical parodies.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good laugh!!!

[Miodrag ★❥ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I will never EVER read a parody book again.
Such a waste of my 'precious' time. This book was really funny at the start, but as we proceed it got less and less funnier. Now I think that synopsis for this book is more funnier than this whole book is and the level of stupidity, God, I was like:
"You stupid girl"
"What are you doing, do you have brain?"
"This is not funny, it's stupid"
"WOW how stupid this Kantkiss is and Peeta OMG, I can't stand it anymore"
"Baby in Hunger Games, should this be funny? NOPE"

I am big fan of Parody videos, I love parody movies, but as of now I am not a fan of parody books and not planning to read any more of this SH**... argh But I am sure people who love parody books, will love this one too, I just couldn't. It made me laugh out loud, especially at the start, but later it really got dumb and so stupid, I couldn't stand reading it, it was hard for me! I yelled at the characters. XD

Stars: Hardly got 2, and this is only because that start and making me LOL. XD

[Catalina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book seemed to be having an internal struggle concerning whether it was trying to be clever or stupid. Though it did have the occasional redeeming moment, giving a few lines of legitimate commentary on the original book and a sparse helping of witty quips, it generally seemed to resign itself to the latter of these strategies. However, I feel as though criticizing it based on its asinine execution may be a bit unreasonable considering it’s a parody and therefore really isn’t supposed to be good. On the other hand, I frequently found myself counting the pages still left to endure toward the middle.

My overall conclusion is that if you can manage to turn your brain off while reading it and simultaneously keep in mind that the stupidity is intentional, you might just find some amusement in the idiocy of the whole thing. Though I guess if your brain is off, whatever you’re keeping in it may not be of any consequence after all… so good luck with that.

[Maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not as funny as I would have thought it to be. 2/5 stars, I liked the YouTube trailer better. Wasted money.

[Yusra · Rating 2 out of 5]

as a fellow fan, i was hoping for some fun baker jokes and a good laugh, but nada.