Bored of the Rings: A Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

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Summary: funniest book you'll read for years
Review: if you are a tolkin fan or not , you owe it to your sence of humor to read this book. it is one of the funniest parodies i have ever read.
laugh out loud funny

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Summary: The Harvard Lampoon's take on Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"
Review: I remember very few lines of verse, but amongst those committed to memory are the lines: "We Boggies are a merry folk/who like to eat until we choke/loving all like friend and brother/and hardly ever eat each other" (which is followed up a chorus that repeats the word "gobble" a whole bunch of times). "Bored of the Rings," the Harvard Lampoon parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings," was written by Douglas C. Kenney and Henry N. Beard at the end of the Sixties, right before they went off into the real world to found "The National Lampoon" and at a time when the Trilogy was required reading for fans of fantasy.

Of course, it goes without saying that much of what you will find in here will be grossly offensive and that if you are not well versed in Tolkien's Trilogy then the story of the ring that was given by Dildo Bugger to his nephew Frito, who then embarked with his servant Spam, his friends Moxie and Pepsi, Goodgulf Grayteeth the wizard, Stomper the ranger (a.k.a. Arrowroot of Arrowshirt), Bromosel, Gimlet the dwarf and Legolam the elf across Lower Middle Earth to the dark land of Fordor is not going to make much sense. For that matter you had better be well versed in the drug culture of the Sixties and the political machinations of Richard Nixon to get all of the references (I just realized: we need an annotated edition of "Bored of the Rings"). Even if you have seen the movies and recognize the lady Hashberry, you still need to have read the books to know who Tom Benzedrine is in the grand scheme of things.

My favorite scene are when the Ballhog shows up and when Goddam and the ring meet their final fate. This is a lengthy parody, necessitated by the size of the work that inspired this insanity. Despite the low-brown humor involved with the playful names, there is some college level sophistication to the parody as well. However, if you consider Tolkien to be sacred text, then do not go anywhere near "Bored of the Rings" because you will be grossly offended (and probably several other types of offended as well). I will still maintain that the wicked sense of humor here is inspired by an affection for Tolkien's work, but understand that there will be those who dismiss that idea.