[5][6] The stories in the anthology were originally broadcast as a weekly podcast, Neues vom Känguru (en: News from the Kangaroo), on Fritz, a Berlin-based radio station.
Shortly after he had closed the door, it rings again – the Kangaroo also needs to borrow some salt, milk, flour, oil and a pan.
These connecting elements, referring to punch lines from earlier stories and requiring knowledge of previous events appear as running gags throughout the books.
The story is set in Berlin, and occasionally mentions concrete geographical locations, such as Berlin-Kreuzberg or the underground station Kottbusser Tor.
The relationship between Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo is characterized by bickering, jealousy and spending a lot of time with each other – a bit like a stereotypical marriage.
Their topics of conversation range from media and linguistic criticism to capitalism, questions of life and faith, contemporary protest culture, Karl Marx, Bertolt Brecht, the Red Army Faction and the Viet Cong.
Marc-Uwe's editor suggests to the Kangaroo that the Penguin is its archenemy, fighting to advance its kapitalistischen Weltverschlechterungsplan (en: Capitalist plot to screw up the world).
At an awards ceremony which Marc-Uwe and the Kangaroo attend as were nominees for the "Best Book Featuring a Talking Animal," they meet Jörg and Jörn Dwigs – brothers who founded the right-wing populist party Sicherheit und Verantwortung (en: Safety and Responsibility).
This inspires the Kangaroo to found das Asoziale Netzwerk (en: the anti-social network) – a group that commits "anti-terror attacks" aimed at "The System."
At the end of part 1, Marc-Uwe's editor asks for more grandeur, so in Revelations II, the flatmates carry on their search abroad.
The kangaroo loves booze pralines, schnitzel buns with mince, as well as the band Nirvana and movies with Bud Spencer – preferably without Terence Hill.
Until the kangaroo locates what it precisely needs, it frequently has to search for long time and then pulls out books, bolt cutters, newspapers, stolen ashtrays and lots more.
It is working on a magnum opus, which, according to the Kangaroo, carries the two human main driving forces in its title: "opportunism and repression".
Her true name Maria is first mentioned in the chapter "Swedish Scientists" of the Kangaroo Apocrypha, as well as the fact that she successfully completed her study of arts.
However, her code name in the network is often used for a running gag (this is how the characters talk about God, using phrases that can be related to both her and the religious figure).
As mentioned during the plot, God lives in a council flat and has a little son named Jesus with her boyfriend, who owns a mobile phone shop.
Jörn is a bank director and finances the populistic right-wing party Sicherheit und Verantwortung (SV) (meaning "security and responsibility"), which the two of them founded.
On the strength of that, the psychiatrist has a nervous breakdown, undergoes medical treatment himself, represses the existence of the Kangaroo and keeps trying to convince the I-narrator of its nonexistence.
The fact that the psychiatrist rips diverse statements of the I-narrator out of its context and interprets them as romantic advances becomes another running gag.
Originally coined by Kant, the following is misquoted by Kling to be said by Silvio Berlusconi: Handle stets nur nach derjenigen Maxime, durch die du zugleich wollen kannst, dass sie ein allgemeines Gesetz werde.
The books show a high degree of allusions, intertextuality, word play, punch lines and running gags.
All four books reference popular culture and contain homages to movies (among them Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Fight Club) and literature.
The individual texts display characteristics of short stories: a straight, episodic plot; a limited number of characters (with a tendency towards stereotypes); a determined beginning and a succinct end constructed as a punch line; stylistically concise and suggestive language and in regards to content a tendency towards the extraordinary.
There are also parallels to a fable as there are animal protagonists with human attributes and a critical, educative tenor, all of which results in a satirical effect.
The Kangaroo Chronicles were received mostly positive by the cultural pages: The Süddeutsche Zeitung described the author as a "new high-flyer on the German cabaret scene",[13] the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung rated the columns as "eloquent, amusing and fast-paced",[14] the radio station Deutschlandfunk Kultur praised: "Kling writes subtly exaggerated and radically direct.
"[15] In the opinion of Elisabeth von Thadden in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit Kling offers "everything social philosophy has to offer in terms of social criticism: The kangaroo wants political participation (Jürgen Habermas), whines for recognition (Axel Honneth), needs love (Eva Illouz) and definitely resonance (Hartmut Rosa), seeks justice (John Rawls), wants to abolish the system (no one represents it any more), declares the biological gender difference irrelevant (Judith Butler).
[16] Sophie Weigand, in Literaturen (a German literature magazine), wrote "never has social criticism been so witty and so pointed at the same time, this book is not only alternative but also completely unrivalled.
One must have a childlike disposition to be inspired by such things (Original German quote: "zuvörderst einen Jux nach dem anderen machen und niemandem wehtun.
Man muß schon über ein kindliches Gemüt verfügen, um sich von so etwas begeistern zu lassen.").
After that, guest performances in, inter alia, Berlin (Brotfabrik), Dresden (Johannstadthalle) and Freiburg (Wallgraben-Theater) followed.