Tolkien Parody: Insulting or Flattering??

[Dunadanman]

Having been a Tolkien fan for nearly 4 decades, I am curious about how people feel about the parodies out there? I long ago read (and enjoyed) the Harvard Lampoon's effort, "Bored of the Rings." Recently, I just found a new one on Amazon entitled "High as a Hobbit." This one actually had me laughing out loud all evening. While I've considered myself a bit of a purist when it comes to the art of our British friend (for instance, I boycotted the movies at first...although broke down eventually and thoroughly enjoyed them!), I have no problems with well-written books that poke fun at the noble themes. I guess I agree with the author of HAAH (Timbly Prywater) who states that parody is a form of flattery. If you agree, I recommend "High as a Hobbit" with no reservations...it's really that funny! If you think otherwise about parody, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks.

[Inziladun]

Welcome to the Downs, Dunadanman!

The only full-length Tolkien parody I've read is Bored of the Rings. While it's obviously dated, I still found it decently funny in places.

I do consider myself a Tolkien purist, but I'm not adverse to parodies of the works, as long as they're tastefully done. Peter Jackson's films fit the bill

[Dunadanman]

Thanks for the welcome! "Bored of the Rings" was ok, but the approach taken by the authors of "High as a Hobbit" is completely different...very close alignment with the original tones. I was seriously laughing out loud. Check it out (it's only $2.99 on Amazon).

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I do consider myself a Tolkien purist, but I'm not adverse to parodies of the works, as long as they're tastefully done. Peter Jackson's films fit the bill

PJ's fims, tasteful?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

PJ's fims, tasteful?

Well, I differentiate between "predictably Hollwood-ized" and actively offensive.

[Mithalwen]

I found Bored of the Rings very funny when I read it back in the day. Really good parody may have an element of affection in it and if you really love something you can laugh at its faults. Two of my favourite books are Mary Webb's Precious Bane and Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm which is a parody in part of Webb's work (though is a classic in it's own right). However there a lot of potboilers out there and as with anything that seeks merely to cash in on Tolkien's work, I tend not be overly impressed.
Having not read the one you refer to I can't say.

If you want a parody of the film I suggest trawling YouTube for the French and Saunders LOTR one..

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I've read quite a few of the parodies that have been published, and just recently one of our Downers (with the help of another) has published his series of parodies, The Lord of the Grins, for Kindle. This new one looks interesting enough to check out.

My favourite movie parodies are the Russian trilogy films, "The Trouble of the Rings".

[Pervinca Took]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

I found Bored of the Rings very funny when I read it back in the day. Really good parody may have an element of affection in it and if you really love something you can laugh at its faults. Two of my favourite books are Mary Webb's Precious Bane and Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm which is a parody in part of Webb's work (though is a classic in it's own right).

Read Cold Comfort Farm a few weeks ago and enjoyed it exceedingly. It did feel like a parody of a certain genre, but I didn't think of Mary Webb. I like Precious Bane, too. I thought the film of it was very good - but it was years ago when I saw it (and a long time before I got round to reading the book, although I always try to read the book first).

[Lotrelf]

I think I'm quite sensitive to Professor's work, and can't tolerate if someone insults him (or his books). I'm not sure about parodies but they're crazy.

[mhagain]

Parody is fine; Tolkien himself is known to have had a mischievous sense of humour so the existence of parodies is something I believe he would accept (misreprenentation of his work as something that it's not seems to be where he would draw the line).

One of my personal favourites came from the old Tolkien Sarcasm pages, and does a fine job of summarising much of what's to be found in the HoME:

The second account, once intended for the Appendices, has only recently come to light, found written on the back of several examination papers in the effects of one Mr Avery Sharpe of Bristol, now recently deceased. The text is here in a very rough state, pencilled hastily and often almost illegibly, sometimes erased and on one occasion actually spray-painted over.

This gives a nice mental image of Tolkien deliberately wrecking his manuscripts so as to cause intentional difficulties for future researchers.