Through coincidence, I've read two parodies of H.P. Lovecraft this week. I read him in my teens. I enjoyed the later, less poetic, stories. However much I like him, I have to say that he's an easy target for lampoons. This first one I found on Book-A-Minute.

The Collected Work of H. P. Lovecraft

Narrator I will tell you about something horrific I witnessed.
(Narrator discusses MUNDANE experiences which supposedly lead up to something HORRIFIC.)

Narrator We're almost at the horrific bit.
(Narrator talks about more stuff that might be SPOOKY if he'd only GET ON WITH IT.)

Narrator We're very close now.
(Narrator draws it out MORE.)

Narrator This time I swear we're just about at the horrific thing almost.
(Narrator FINALLY gets to the HORRIFIC thing which is HUGE and POWERFUL and EVIL and LAME.)

THE END

The second is from the novella Hottentots by Paul DiFilippo.

"Aye, many's the night I've sat inside my bolted, shuttered house with my dear old Dolly, like all the other good folks o' Marblehead, knowin' that the Deep Ones was a-fixin' to celebrate their unholy allegiance with the sea-critters. They would gather first in Washington Square beneath them contorted and twisty ancient trees with the branches that dangle like nooses. From there, they'd march up to the Old Burial Hill overlookin' the town. There they's raise up a few choice spirits, such as the souls o' Margaret Scot and Wilmett Redd, who was both hanged as Satan's apprentices. Then back down again, through the twisty, non-Euclidean streets they'd crawl, a-yelpin' and a-howlin' fit to beat the band, some o' the legless citizens a-floppin' their reekin' squamous bodies through the dust! Down to the waterfront they'd hie themselves, there to be greeted by their infamous cohorts from the stinkin' sea-floor. And then-- well, ye don't want to know what happened then. Suffice it to say that it'd require a heap o' italics to convey."

Captain Stormfield leaned back where he sat, and poked his unlit pipe into his mouth with dire meaning. There was a stunned silence for a moment. Then one of the sailors spoke.

"What's that there word 'nun-yew-clit-ian' mean?"

As I am typing this there is something coming in th