Oh, Bother: Winnie-The-Pooh Is Befuddled, Too (a Smackerel-Sized Parody of Modern Life)

Welcome back to the Hundred Acre Wood as Winnie-the-Pooh and friends acclimate to the joys and worries of the 21st century in this heartfelt parody.

The world has changed in the hundred years since A. A. Milne introduced us to Winnie-the-Pooh and his pals, but that doesn’t mean our lovable friends haven’t adapted to life in the twenty-first century. In this heartwarming, laugh-out-loud parody, Jennie Egerdie, author of the celebrated Frog and Toad are Doing Their Best, takes us along for some marvelous misadventures as the gang grapples with modern life’s headaches and pesky predicaments. Like the rest of us, Pooh worries about what the dwindling bee population will do to his beloved honey, while Owl discovers how far too easily misinformation can spread online. Kanga hopes she can have a night off from raising Roo, and Eeyore is finally taking care of his mental health with the help of Dr Festinker, the neighborhood therapist (and skunk). Things may not always make sense in our world, but Winnie-the-Pooh always bounds ahead, day by day and smackeral by smackeral.

Jennie Egerdie is a Canadian writer and performer living in Brooklyn. A frequent contributor to McSweeney’s, her first book, Frog and Toad Are Doing Their Best, was named one of Vulture’s best humor books of 2021. Jennie is currently an editor for Funny Women, a literary feminist humor column on The Rumpus.