I still believe they read Fellowship, skimmed Two Towers, and had someone tell them what happened in Return of the King.
Mad’s parody was pretty good
At Bree:
“I’ve got the Ring the others haven’t got,
I’ve got the Ring that puts me on the spot,
I’ve got the Ring without it there’s no plot,
I am Frodo and I’ve got the Ring”
It was more like 30 years ago for me, but yeah, it failed to make a (positive) impression on me. Good satire is hard and this wasn’t very good. It had a couple of moments (Even I must admit that “A pity I’ve run out of bullets.” is pretty good) but overall…yuk.
As Gimlet offers Frito his hand to shake, Frito thinks:
It must be a hand. It’s on the end of his arm.
I found it hilarious. 40 years ago.
My favorite:
(To the tune of Sounds of Silence)
“And the rottenness that was planted in my brain will remain
Til I gets back…my precious!”
And as to the OP, I started BOTR some years ago, but found it sophomoric and, well, boring, so I only made it about halfway through.
I still found it very funny last time I read it, probably ten years ago.
I gave it to Mrs. Plant (v.3.0), Girlfriend (v?) back then, and it inspired her to read Lord of the Rings. What the hell is this thing about?
:dubious:
I found it tedious and juvenile, but I was about 35 when I first read it.
I read it in college, back in the 1970’s. I hadn’t read it again until last year, when I read some sections out to my grandson (who enjoyed the LOTR movies and then read the books). I figured it would seem too dated to him, but he was ROFLMAO. He’s 18.
Honi soit la vache qui rit. Also, every once in a while I’ll randomly think “Minas Troney in the Soup.”
“This is indeed a queer river,” said Bromosel, as the water lapped at his thighs.
“Peoples of the West! The battle before the Black Gate of Sorhed will be one of few against many; but the few are of pure heart and the many are of the filthy. Nevertheless, those of you who wish to cringe and run from the fight may do so to quicken our pace. Those who still ride with the King of Twodor will live forever in song and legend! The rest may go.”
It is said that the dust cloud did not settle for many days after.
“May your hemorrhoids shrink without surgery.”
They climbed and climbed for what seemed like an hour. An hour later they reached the top.
Both mrAru and I have read it. Sophomoric in areas, dull and boring in areas and bright sparks of hilarity. You have to be up on the real trilogy and the hobbit, and have a basic understanding of a lot of stuff from the 60s and 70s, and hollywood to get many of the jokes. Not something we would normally recommend people, but for people who are able to understand the jokes, it can be an interesting read.
I first read fthis as a teen devastated at reading the end of the trilogy. I’ll always love it for lifting me out of that funk.
I was lucky, when I finished LotR, I was talking to my sister & BIL about it and he had the Silmarillion. This was back in 1976. Then I just started pouring through the Fantasy shelves of the school’s library.
The monster was a huge Thesaurus, with long, dangling participles.
“Eat,” it said. “See ‘devour’.” “Ref: maim…”
(Sorry, that’s only a quote from memory. I have the book here, but couldn’t find the passage.)
The Silmarillion came out in 1977
Yep, I got the year wrong, I read the LotR in 1977, not 1976.
Same as me. Inspired by the Rankin-Bass Hobbit in 1977? I was. I read the Hobbit, LOTR, The Silmarillion and The Tolkien Companion http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Tolkien_Companion all in that year.