The Huffington Post Takes Hungry Hungry Hippos Parody and Runs with It
Whether it’s the above shirt or Jimmy Kimmel doing a parody video, you’ve probably seen some iteration of the Hunger Games Hungry Hungry Hippos mashup. Huffington Post writer Laurence Hughes has as well and ran with the idea, writing his own beginnings of a parody with this in mind and it’s pretty funny!
I become restless — Peeta and I have already been briefed about all this by Effie Trinket, our escort at the Games and Haymitch’s AA sponsor. Effie Trinket. Peeta Mellark. Katniss. Primrose. The apocalypse sure left some stupid names in its wake.
“What about once we’re in the Arena?” I ask.
“Well,” Haymitch says, “there are these four hippos.”
“And they’re hungry?”
“They’re hungry hungry.”
“And we’re supposed to find them and destroy them, is that it?” Peeta says.
“Oh no,” Haymitch says. “You can’t miss them — they’re huge. Bright primary colors. Just sitting there at the sides of the Arena.”
“So what happens?”
“The Games begin and then the hippos gobble up all the Tributes.”
“That’s it?” says Peeta. “No competition? No tactics or strategy?”
“Nope,” says Haymitch. “Just gobbling.”
“What a stupid game,” I say.
The bottle caps pop out of Haymitch’s eyes and clatter onto the table. “You better start taking this seriously, Katniss,” he snaps. He points a finger at me for emphasis and seems surprised to find a beer bottle stuck on the end of it. “Damn it, girl, we’re talking Hungry Hungry Hippos! You’re not going out there to play Ants in the Pants, you know.”
“Alright. So how do you win the Hungry Hungry Hippos Games?”
“You don’t,” Haymitch says. “The hippos win.”
“Wait a minute,” Peeta says. “I thought you said you were a winner. That’s why you’re our mentor. You told us you won hands down.”
“That’s right, I won Hands Down,” Haymitch says. “Different game altogether.”
Peeta is angry now. “We’re nothing more than pawns in the government’s game,” he says to me. He’s bitter because what he really wanted to be is the top hat in Monopoly.
For myself, I intend to give them a fight. I take out my tribute token, a small gold ring adorned with the figure of a bird. An Angry Bird. If properly deployed with a slingshot it can take out a pig — how effective will it be against a hippo?
Check out the full article for more Hasbro-inspired hilarity. Have you written any Hunger Games parodies? Do you like them or find it disrespectful of the seriousness of the story?
