Well, well, we could just have a standoff here!
Here's a little story for you, one which (by the sounds of things) you will end up despising me for but I'll take the chance anyway. My cousin was telling me of this guy who was hit by a car in the middle of a road. He slowly got up to his feet after a couple of minutes, and was promptly hit by another car. This story provoked the usual chorus of
"Oh my god"s and
"How terrible!"s but my cousin and I could not help but see the funny side.
Go ahead, shake your head in disgust.
That does sound like a Naked Gun style joke, and it would be hilarious in a comedy film, but I will certainly argue that it is also funny in real life. Of course it is easy for me to say that because I am completely detached from this person, and if it was someone I knew that was hit by the car then I would be horrified. However, the absurdity of the whole episode is funny. You can laugh and cry at something like that.
But I think I've gone off the rails a bit.....
Let's get back to Gimli. I think that even a witty and clever joke would have been slightly out of place in the Theoden-strategy scene, let alone a crude vulgar joke. Does anyone think that there is just too much humour in the films?