[The Saucepan Man]

I do see what davem's getting at though. It does somewhat devalue Treebeard's character to have Merry and Pippin dozing off while he recites bad poetry to them.<P>Much as I like the films, I am not really a fan of these momets of "forced" humour and excitement (continued repetition of Dwarf tossing/shortness jokes, shield-surfing etc). Yes, there is humour in JRRT's books, but its gentle humour and the gentler moments of humour in the films that reflect this are great, such as Gandalf playing up to the Hobbit children when he lets his fireworks off from the back of the cart (wonder what the health and safety inspectors would have to say about that, though ). Similarly, Gimli's discussion with Eowyn about Dwarvish women is wonderful, but then it's all spoilt by the slapstick of Gimli falling off his horse.<P>Merry and Pippin do work in the films as comedy duo (although it would be nice to see their characters fleshed out as more than just a wisecracking double-act - fingers crossed for RotK). And of course there is gentle humour in the book in Treebeard's conversations with them and the length of time that the Entmoot takes. This, I think, is dealt with well in TTT. But to set up Treebeard as some lousy poet and have M & P poke fun at him doesn't seem quite right to me.