comic relief in LotR
 

I love the funny moments in the book, so let's share them!
One of my favorites is the scene in the Houses of Healing, where Aragorn and Gandalf want the athelas for healing the wounded.

Aragorn to Ioreth: "Run as quick as your tongue and get me kingsfoil."

Gandalf: "I will ride... with Ioreth... and she shall take me to the woods, but not to her sisters. And Shadowfax shall show her the meaning of haste."

Aragorn to the herb-master: "I care not whether you say now asea aramion or kingsfoil, so long as you have some."

Gandalf to the herb-master: "Go and find some old man of less lore and more wisdom who keeps some in his home!"

Doesn't that crack you up?!

I love the comic moments, too! And Ioreth is a hoot. But my favourite is the reaction of the Gaffer to Sam's homecoming:

(to Frodo) 'And I hope my Sam's behaved hisself and given satisfaction?'

'Perfect satisfaction, Mr Gamgee', said Frodo. 'Indeed, if you will believe it, he's now one of the most famous people in all the lands ...'

(I just love the contrast of this, after hundreds of pages of the most dire trials. The Gaffer hears Frodo's reply and continues undeterred:...)

'I takes a lot o'believing, though I can see he's been mixing in strange company. [Indeed!!] What's come of his weskit? I don't hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no.'

What I love about this is not only that it's hilariously funny but that it's also somehow very moving at the same time.

yes, lobelia! Doesn't that evoke a mental picture of a hobbit at Mark's and Spencer's:
"It's so heavy and uncomfortable!"
Salesman: "But it wears well!"

I laughed out loud at the part when Pippin and Merry greet the Riders at Isengard, and Gimli's reaction to them ("Where did you come by the weed, you villians? Hammer and tongs!"), as well as Legolas' amusement ("...I would sooner learn how they came by the wine."). It was a much-needed moment of comic relief after all the bloody doings, dead orcs, and howling wolves.

There are so many funny moments in The Scouring of the Shire. The Scouring of the Shire is arguably the best chapter in The Lord of the Rings because of Tolkien's juxtaposition of humor and profound sadness in the chapter. My personal favorite is when Rosy says to Sam that he better not leave his master now that things are just beginning to look dangerous. Although like Lush, I laughed out loud when the company of Rohan find Merry and Pippin in front of the Orthanc.

The ability to create a flowing mix of sadness and humor is the mark of a true writer (remember Gloucester falling down, and Lear dressed in flowers in Will Shakespeare's King Lear). Three cheers for Tolkien.

What a great thread! Actually, I am still howling with laughter over the movie where they are crossing the Khazad-Dum and Gimli says "Nobody tosses this dwarf!"
Now my quest begins to fondly recall other hilarious moments!

Hmmm. . . my favorite funny part? I'd have to say when ol' Bilbo dissapears at his eleventy-one party. It's a classic. The crowd's reaction is the best part. Just imagine what their faces looked like. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

That's the face

I allwas thought the S-B's were funny, just because of there attitude, and they were allways trying to get their hands on anything that Bilbo had that was valuable. I allso thought it was funny how Frodo went and saved Middle Earth and is a hero and all - except in his own land! No one seems to care about what happens in the "outside world," nor do they want to here about it. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I always found Gollum amusing which, now that I think about it, is quite disturbing.

I found Gollum funny too - don't worry! [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

I loved Gollum!

"Give me fish now, keep nassty chips!"

Orcs can be amusing too.... like at the end of TTT when Gorbag and Shagrat are carting Frodo off and talking and Shagrat says "Ah, well, you always did take a gloomy view." Come on, you're orcs in Mordor for goodness sake!... And, as Lush says, it's just great when authors stick in the moments of humorous irony at very solemn parts of the story.

Gollum is funny, if you think about it. LOL! But I like the part when Sam stands up to Faramir. I cracked up.

"See here! Let's get to the point before all the Orcs of Mordor com down on us! If you think my master murdered this Boromir and then ran away, you've got no sense; but say it, and hae done! And then let us know what you mean to do about it. But it's a pity that folk as talk about fighting the Enemy can't let others do their bit in their own way without interfering. He'd be mighty pleased, if he could see you now. Think he'd got a new friend, he would."

I also like the part where Pippin says (in Lothlorien, after Galadriel's questioning with her eyes,) "What did you blush for, Sam? Anyone would think you had a guilty conscience. I hope it was nothing more than a wicked plot to steal one of my blankets." That made me laugh a lot.

I did also enjoy reading Flotsam and Jetsam, when Gimli gets all angry, and in "The Scouring of the Shire" when the travelers make the Shirrifs run in front of them. Served them right!

[ March 13, 2002: Message edited by: dragongirlG ]

I also thought it was great the way Merry was making jokes while being pushed around by the orcs.

"'Hullo, Pippin,' he said. 'So you've come on this little expedition, too? Where do we get bed and breakfast?'"

i think the funnniest part is when tolkien describes the presents bilbo gives away after he leaves.

I always loved "Please Mr. Frodo, sir!...
Don't let him turn me into something unnatural! My old dad would take on so." Poor Sam!

"I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn't they put in more of his talk, dad? That's what I like, it makes me laugh."

Yes, that "My old Dad would take on so" is what really makes that one [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. You can just imagine the Gaffer chewing Sam out for getting himself turned into a toad ("Allus knew somethin' bad 'ud come of this book-learnin' and foolishness").

"Flotsam and Jetsam" is one of my favorite parts of all of LOTR, and the talk between the hobbits and Legolas and Gimli is great for that sort of thing. (Gimli saying "smoking - smoking!!!" and "Well earned [comforts]? I cannot believe that!") And the hobbits give as good as they get. Of course the scene is funny largely because it's a bit of downtime after Helm's Deep and the storming of Isengard, but it's also very humorous to see how differently the hobbits talk to the Elf and the Dwarf...as equals who have also been through battle, instead of the comic baggage they were before they were kidnapped. Understandably it takes Legolas and Gimli a few moments to catch on, but they do eventually [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] .

I loved the Flotsam and Jetsome chapter also. Though one of my fav scenes is in the "Houses of Healing" chapter. It is the chapter after Merry is healed and he begins to talk to Aragorn about pipeweed, then Aragorn goes into his speal and leaves him. Then Pippin says "My dear a*ss....." That was so funny! Of course the scene with Ioreth and her kin.

I loved the part when Frodo woke up in Rivendell
and Pipin yells at him "The Lord Of The Ring Woke Up !"
that was so funny I wet my pants...

[img]smilies/frown.gif[/img]too bad it has been cut off the movie...

I was quite fond of the description of the things Bilbo left to his friends and relatives (especially the spoon for Lobelia). And Frodo and Sam in Mordor talking about stories; I laughted outright reading that.

The bath scene at Crickhollow was hilarious!
Frodo: I'm drying off in the kitchen where there's less water in the air! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

Sigh....showing my ignorance yet again...
What's a weskit?

I looked up weskit, and apparently it's a waistcoat.

Oh, okay. TY. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

"Then who would you take up with? A fat inkeeper who only knows his own name because people shout it at him all day?"

I also cracked up when I read the part where one orc greets the other with "hola!" b/c I know this guy who speaks fluent Spanish, and he would take it as a personal insult that Orcs speak it as well. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

It's strange but one of the moments that made me laugh was the fox in "Three is company" /I can't find the exact quote in English now/

Hi, this is my first post. :-)

I wanted to say I love all the comic moments that others have mentioned, but there's another great one that I haven't seen here yet --

Gandalf is trying to figure out the words to open the doors to Moria, and says that the doors cannot be forced open from the outside.

"What are you going to do then?" asked Pippin, undaunted by the wizard's bristling brows.

"Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took," said Gandalf. "But if that does not shatter them..." (etc.)

I love Gandalf! When those brows start to bristle, watch out!


Estella

That whole scene is a knee-slapper, Estella. [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
Welcome to the 'Downs!

yeah i love all the funny lotr stuff you guys mentioned, especially the meeting of the hobbits and the rohan party in isengard ("hammer and thongs" exclaims gimli [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ).
there's another eposide that cracked me up...when aragorn, legolas and gimli found signs of merry and pippin where the uruk-hai were raided by the rohirrim...they couldn't make sense of how the hobbits escaped and found the sense of eating in the middle of the skirmish. i hope they show that in the ttt movie!

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every man's life is a path to the truth -- hesse

Yeah I love all those bits. but one of the things that most impressed me about the movie was how they managed to brink humer into moria, thae part with Billy and how he flinched every time the corpse banged and how Viggo said the words "they have a cave troll!" It just goes to show, even in the direst places you can find humer if you look hard enough

Oh my goodness...how could you guys have forgotten when Samwise goes to try and save Frodo? He uses the Galadriel-glass to get past those horrid-sounding guards, once he does they send off a warning to I believe the watcher on the tower. As our favorite hobbit realizes this he says: 'There! Now I've gone and rung the front-doorbell!', or something to that affect. I was crying from laughter and that's a marvelous achievement of the trilogy; when scary parts affect you to the point that you're tense from all the orcs and mouth of Sauron and God knows what you get a wonderful line like that. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

I like it when they go to the house at Crickhollow, and the hobbits are wondering who should be first in the bath. Merry says 'Should it be the quickest or the oldest? Either way, you'll be last Pippin'

And in Rivendell, Gandalf says to Frodo:
'And you are lucky to be here, too, after all the absurd things you have done since you left home.'

!! I just think they're funny, people being mean to eachother!

A-HEM! Did we forget the little incident with the Legolas and Gimli contest with killing the orcs?!
lol [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

I hope you didn't mean that literally. . .

I thought it was hillarious in the scouring of the shire. . .
[ April 03, 2002: Message edited by: Nevfeniel ]

I really like where Pippin is talking about the events with the Ents & he gets to the part where...
~"Gandalf!" I said at last, but my voice was only a whisper. Did he say: "Hullo, Pippin! This is a pleasant surprise!"? No, Indeed! He said: "Get up you, you tom-fool of a Took! Where in the name of wonder in all this ruin is Treebeard? I want him. Quick!!~

Sam beaning Bill Ferny, and muttering "Waste of a good apple." [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Hmm... what has happened to my memory? Ah, this is the vision: Frodo and Sam found by the men of Faramir. I can't remember the discussion, but it was hilarious, the rangers of Ithilien wondering wether they be elves, and deciding they are not fair enough...

It was kinda funny when the orcs thought Sam was an Elvish warrior. I just thought 'Far from it. . .'

One more that I can think of, Sam at the council of Elrond, Frodo isn't going any where without me (or something like that). And of corse the corresponding sceen in the movie, you need someone of inteligence on this mission, quest, thing. Well that rules you out pip.

Also in the movie: what about second breakfast...