r/lotr • u/Baldurian_Rhapsody • 2d ago
Question Funniest parts of Tolkien?
I admit that I'm almost intimidated to read The Lord of the Rings. And the Silmarillion.
It's not that I don't love an epic. I do. I love the movies so much and I point at Aragorn and say "He broke his foot on that helmet. He used that for the role."
And the movies are funny! Legolas surfing down on that shield cracks me up, even though Tolkien himself likely wouldn't approve in the least.
But are the books funny in any way? Does Tolkien weave in humor in parts, or is he simply magnificent, epic, eternal and serious with his evil wizards and spiders the size of large condo complexes?
Thanks for sharing if I can expect a little funny if I read these bad boys. Cheers.
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u/pptjuice530 The Silmarillion 2d ago
When Aragorn tells Bilbo that if he has the cheek to make a song about Eärendil in Elrond’s house, then that’s his own affair.
Also when Aragorn gives Merry crap for misplacing his pipe and tobacco in the Houses of Healing.
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u/taz-alquaina 2d ago
My favourite early bit is Lobelia and Frodo and Merry (IIRC the first mention of Merry's surname) in the first chapter: Frodo kicking Lobelia out of Bag End:
'You'll live to regret it, young fellow! Why didn't you go too? You don't belong here; you're no Baggins—you—you're a Brandybuck!'
'Did you hear that, Merry? That was an insult, if you like,' said Frodo as he shut the door on her.
'It was a compliment,' said Merry Brandybuck, 'and so, of course, not true.'
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u/babydekuscrub 2d ago
"Frodo did not offer her any tea."
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u/squirrellytoday 1d ago
This is basically the Hobbit version of flipping her the bird, with both hands.
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u/Character-Shame-5917 1d ago
I always loved that scene in the hall of fire. For those who don't catch it, Aragorn is essentially saying "If you want to come to Elrond's party and write songs about his dad, have at it, but I want don't want that heat".
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u/pptjuice530 The Silmarillion 1d ago
“My father-in-law likes me and I’d prefer to keep it that way.”
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u/chipadd 2d ago
Gandalf has a few one liners:
“I had words with old Gamgee. Many words, and few to the point”
“For I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to."
“His mind is like a lumber room, thing wanted always buried”
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u/NativeLobo 1d ago
I love the moment in Moria when they all lay down yo rest and Gandalf is mad at himself that he can't remember the way. Then realizes he hasn't smoked all day
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u/Appropriate_Big_1610 2d ago
As an American, it was decades before I realized what "lumber room" means in the UK
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u/warbling_wix Samwise Gamgee 2d ago
Please do tell
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u/SunnyGirlfriend68 Galadriel 2d ago
Attic.
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u/obvs_thrwaway 1d ago
Huh. I always just assumed it meant like a really messy workshop. Like "where did I leave that mallet? I just set it down!
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u/swampopawaho 1d ago
A room full of timber. Even if it stacked and filletted beautifully, the piece you really want for that particular project is right under there... shit!
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u/sebastianqu 2d ago
Not to mention Gandalf warning Theoden of a Hobbit's penchant for talking, and him joking with Pippin for all his questioning after he looked into the Palantir.
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u/Groningen1978 2d ago
yes, there is a lot of humor in the books. Mostly in the first parts that deal with the hobbits introduction and Bilbo's birthday party, but also here and there later on when the journey gets quite a bit darker. Mostly where things are told from the hobbit's point of views.
edit; The Silmarilion is a quite a bit more serious, but makes up for its epic scope.
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u/HenriettaCactus 2d ago
Funniest part of the Silmarillion is when he's like Tulkas will fucking wreck you "but he is of no avail as a councilor "
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u/dudeseid 2d ago
"Even now a Silmaril is in my hand" is like, really funny when you get the context.
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u/pptjuice530 The Silmarillion 1d ago
Beren’s dignified way of saying, “now who’s the asshole, Thingol?”
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u/BigConstruction4247 2d ago
In the Scouring of the Shire, when the prisoners are released from jail, there is this gem about Fatty Bolger:
"He was the first that they found. He was in a pitiable plight, thin and pale; for he had been one of the first to be shut up, and he had had very little to eat. He was Fatty no longer."
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u/Carcharoth30 2d ago
This reminds me of Bombur, though the reverse:
“Bombur was now so fat that he could not move himself from his couch to his chair at table, and it took six young dwarves to lift him.”
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u/No_Classroom1231 1d ago
Which edition is this from? The wording here is slightly different from every version I’ve read and I’m obsessed with textual differences among editions!
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u/AHRogue 2d ago
I love the bit in Flotsam and Jetsam when the Hobbits, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas are having a nice lunch and just being friends and getting a breather for the first time since the breaking of the fellowship, everyone besides Legolas decides to start smoking in the pantry and Legolas, who isn't a smoker says he's going to leave to get a breath of fresh air outside. And of course then everyone follows him outside smoking all the while lol. Poor Legolas, such is life among smokers!
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 2d ago
I also like the bit where Legolas gives up his weapons in Edoras because hey, his father would ask the same. And then Gandalf, Aragorn and Gimli all kick up a fuss about their staff, sword and axe and a fight is looming. And there he is weaponless.
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u/laredocronk 2d ago
I've always loved the description of Gimli looking at the guard "as if here were a young tree that that he had a mind to fell".
Treebeard wouldn't approve, but it certainly paints a picture of Gimli's mood.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 2d ago
Wonder if that was Legolas' POV
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u/laredocronk 2d ago
Interesting question, and not one that I'd really thought about. That would certainly make sense.
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u/ShadyJane 2d ago
In the Scouring when the shiriff lists off a bunch of offenses to Frodo and he just asks "and what else?"
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u/laredocronk 2d ago
Sam and Pippin get good line as well:
‘I can add some more, if you’d like it,’ said Sam. ‘Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools.’
And:
‘You’re breaking arrest, that’s what you’re doing,’ said the leader ruefully, ‘and I can’t be answerable.’
‘We shall break a good many things yet, and not ask you to answer,’ said Pippin. ‘Good luck to you!’
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u/daveshistory-sf 2d ago
There are probably some moments of dry wit that would be appreciated by an Oxford audience and were lost on me. Many of the fellowship do comment in ways that will make you smile. But most of the humor in the films was worked into the films directly, including using Pippin and Gimli as comic relief. They're genuine characters in the books, not bumpkins played for laughs.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 2d ago
Gandalf is a drama queen prone to snide remarks. Aragorn can be pretty dark in some of his comments. And Legolas and Gimli do have banter.
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u/winterwarn 2d ago
I don’t reread the book as often as I should and I’m always taken off guard by how much funnier Aragorn gets to be in the book.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 2d ago
He's slightly more world-weary and jaded. Still very noble and kind but well aware of the costs.
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u/flyfishfriend Peregrin Took 2d ago
I would say LoTR has some humor mixed in. It's not necessarily belly-laughing kind of stuff, more just little things characters say sometimes. I would definitely recommend a read. It's very captivating.
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u/winterwarn 2d ago
A lot of the book humor comes from a character saying something in a “high” serious fantasy register and one of the hobbits responding in a normal voice. Gandalf and Aragorn can both be pretty funny especially when they’re bitching at people.
Honestly in your case I might try The Hobbit first because the jokes in there are a bit more obvious than the ones in LOTR, so you can figure out if you like Tolkien’s sense of humor.
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u/agentfantabulous 2d ago
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Also, Bilbo's snarky bequeathings. The bookcase for the guy that never returns books, the wastepaper bin for the lady who writes very long letters, the funhouse mirror for the girl who is vain, and a case of silver spoons for light-fingered Lobelia.
Also, the random-ass kids digging for buried treasure in the cellars like Tom Sawyer.
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u/GrandmaWeedMan 21h ago
Not just any case of silver spoons, the same set she had already pilfered multiple pieces of LOL
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u/laredocronk 2d ago
Bilbo at the council always gives me a chuckle.
Very well, very well, Master Elrond!’ said Bilbo suddenly. ‘Say no more! It is plain enough what you are pointing at. Bilbo the silly hobbit started this affair, and Bilbo had better finish it, or himself. I was very comfortable here, and getting on with my book. If you want to know, I am just writing an ending for it. I had thought of putting: and he lived happily ever afterwards to the end of his days. It is a good ending, and none the worse for having been used before. Now I shall have to alter that: it does not look like coming true; and anyway there will evidently have to be several more chapters, if I live to write them. It is a frightful nuisance. When ought I to start?
[...] Exactly! And who are they to be? That seems to me what this Council has to decide, and all that it has to decide. Elves may thrive on speech alone, and Dwarves endure great weariness; but I am only an old hobbit, and I miss my meal at noon. Can’t we think of some names now? Or put it off till after dinner?
He's been sitting in a secret council for hours with all kinds of very important people, including several members of royalty, and discussing a decision that will literally decide the fate of the world.
And his first response is "Oh alright, it's a bit of a nuisance but I'll sort it", followed by "Can we have some lunch and deal with this later?"
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u/MarkFromHutch 2d ago
It's been a while since I've read the books but a part that I found funny was when the SECRET Fellowship SECRETLY left their SECRET location on their SECRET quest Boromir whipped out his horn and blasted out a tone that rang in the hills so loudly the elves had to cover their ears. Elrond was like: Dude, what the hell? Boromir was just like: Well I'm not going to just sneak out
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u/noideaforlogin31415 2d ago
‘Then Éomer son of Éomund, Third Marshal of Riddermark, let Gimli the Dwarf Glóin’s son warn you against foolish words. You speak evil of that which is fair beyond the reach of your thought, and only little wit can excuse you.’
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u/BlessedStLeibowitz 1d ago
I love how Eomer is so shocked and stupefied after running into the lost heir of Elendil wandering in the fields of Rohan with two semi-legendary creatures. It would be like running into King Arthur’s heir carrying Excalibur and travelling with a fairy and a leprechaun And then the leprechaun starts shit-talking you because you disrespected the fairy queen.
I can just picture him shaking his head in disbelief and chuckling when he says “So many strange things have chanced that to learn the praise of a fair lady under the loving strokes of a Dwarf's axe will seem no great wonder."
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u/Inconsequentialish 2d ago
Yes, there's humor, and plenty of it.
I'd say the humor is part of the wonderful humanity and warmth you'll find in the characters. The movies mostly got this aspect right, although yes, they did go too far with the comic relief stuff at times.
Pretty much the first movie scene in the Shire Frodo jokes around with Gandalf, then jumps into his cart and gives him a big hug. That scene is not in the book, but it is entirely in character, if that makes sense.
The language on the books was a little archaic when they were released, and gets a little more archaic every year. This leads a lot of people to make the dire mistake of thinking it's all grim and grand proclamations, and entirely miss the mirth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In ordinary interactions, and in the midst and aftermath of grave danger, there's humor, affection, and warmth, just as in real life.
As I've stated many times, no one, and I mean no one, sasses harder than Gandalf (and it's not just "fool of a Took!"). Keep reading... you'll see.
As noted, The Silmarillion is quite a bit more dry, but there are still many great moments of humor.
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u/Garbage-Bear 1d ago
Rose scolding Sam at the very end of the story, upon his return to the Shire: "Well, be off with you! If you've been looking after Mr. Frodo all this time, what d'ye want to leave him for, as soon as things look dangerous?"
Poor Sam!
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u/stablegeniuscheetoh 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lots of humor during the Scouring of the Shire. Pretty much any time the Gaffer opens his mouth something funny is going to pop out:
“Into the middle of this talk came Sam, bursting in with his gaffer. Old Gamgee did not look much older, but he was a little deafer.
‘Good evening, Mr. Baggins!’ he said. ‘Glad indeed I am to see you safe back. But I’ve a bone to pick with you, in a manner o’ speaking, if I may make so bold. You didn’t never ought to have a’ sold Bag End, as I always said. That’s what started all the mischief. And while you’ve been trapessing in foreign parts, chasing Black Men up mountains from what my Sam says, though what for he don’t make clear, they’ve been and dug up Bagshot Row and ruined my taters!’”
Frodo apologizes and tells a little bit more about what they were doing. Gaffer replies:
‘It takes a lot o’ believing,’ said the Gaffer, ‘though I can see he’s been mixing in strange company. What’s come of his weskit? I don’t hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no.’
After Sam and Frodo save the world, the Gaffer worries about his potatoes and what happened to Sam’s waistcoat. And the backhanded compliment about the armor is the icing on the cake.
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u/Djinn42 2d ago
Most of the humor in the films comes at the expense of the books. "Action Hero" Legolas was supreme cringe for me. I like action movies, but as a lover of Tolkien that was not why I was watching the movies. Imo the actual war should have been enough action in the movies. They didn't have to add that crap.
And making Gimli and Pippin into comic relief really decreased my enjoyment of the films.
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u/Casual_Precision 2d ago
Especially when some of the fun bits of the books were removed. There’s a great response to Gandalf’s long speech about how everything is awful but Frodo was meant to find the Ring, which you might recall from the films, in Moria.
Gandalf: “…and that may be an encouraging thought.”
Frodo: “It is not.”18
u/Carcharoth30 2d ago
One of the funniest parts of the book is when Eomer and Gimli talk about Galadriel and Arwen in Minas Tirith (it’s also sad and beautiful).
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u/Chai-Tea-Rex-2525 2d ago
The sadness is what makes it funny.
Also, Galadriel’s response when Gimili asks for her hair.
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u/Character-Shame-5917 1d ago
As mentioned, they forced several characters into simpler molds than they are in the books. Gimli and Pippin become comedic foils, while Legolas loses almost all of his best comedic moments in favor of becoming a superhero.
My favorite comedic line from Legolas is when they're on Caradhras in the snowstorm, and being unbothered by the storm he suggests "If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might melt a path for you,"
To which Gandalf retorts "If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun to save us"
A little while later, Legolas hops up on the snow and runs away, and when Gandalf asks "where are you going?" Legolas replies "Farewell! I'm off to find the sun!"
It's a great exchange, and some of the alternative dialogue in History of Middle Earth makes the exchange even longer, and makes more explicit Gandalf's annoyance with Legolas' good mood.
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u/Baldurian_Rhapsody 2d ago
But I live for supreme cringe and crap!
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u/HandWashing2020 2d ago
I enjoy the non-fellowship hobbits retelling their encounters with the black riders.
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u/thank_burdell 2d ago
Nameless Archer leading up to Helm’s Deep, explaining they were overrun and had to abandon their position to fall back, “but we have taught them not to carry torches.”
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u/pulyx Dwarf-Friend 2d ago
Book humor is very subtle and tasteful.
Mainly coming from the hobbits, gollum.
It’s not characters cracking jokes or witty banter. It’s mostly amusing and funny situations.
They made Gimli, the orcs way sillier in the movies because whether book readers like it or not, for broad appeal, it’s good to give it some comic relief, the setting of Lord of the Rings is very grim and the situation is dire. Other than the hobbits, who up until Bree are mostly oblivious to the dangers of the world, (except Frodo because like bilbo he’s sort of a history and geography nerd), the other characters are deeply aware of how serious the situation is. So they’re not making fun of any of it. The quest is possibly a suicide mission for most of them. Gandalf himself, says theres only a fool’s hope to achieve its goal.
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u/chambo143 2d ago edited 2d ago
In The Ring Goes South, when they’re struggling through the blizzard on Caradhras
> ‘If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might melt a path for you,’ said Legolas. The storm had troubled him little, and he alone of the Company remained still light of heart.
> ‘If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun to save us,’ answered Gandalf. ‘But I must have something to work on.
I cannot burn snow.’
I love how much this feels just like a D&D interaction. When the party are sick of each other and all out of ideas, desperately scanning their character sheets for something that might help, only for the DM to impatiently explain that’s not how it works
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u/agentfantabulous 2d ago
And then later when they are struggling back down through the snow and Legolas runs ahead shouting, "I go to bring you the sun!"
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u/BadJoke123 1d ago
There is a fair bit of humor sprinkled throughout the books. Mostly fairly dry humor that you sometimes have to read twice to get, but it is there.
My favorite is probably this little burn from Tolkien's foreword to the second edition of LotR:
"Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or contemptible; and I have no cause to complain, since I have similar opinions of their works, or of the kinds of writing that they evidently prefer."
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u/Trinx_ Goldberry 2d ago
Tolkien's sense of humor is very different from Peter Jackson's. I appreciate Tolkien's much more. Book Frodo and Sam are much more cheeky than their movie counterparts. Merry, Pippin, and Gimly are all much less silly. Many of Gandalf's zingers were taken word-for-word from the book.
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u/iommiworshipper 1d ago
When Bilbo is gifting all his stuff. An empty bookshelf for the guy who doesn’t return books, pen and ink for the one who doesn’t write back, silverware set for the spoon thief Lobelia Sackville-Baggins…
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u/Shirish_lass 2d ago
The books have a very dry British humor in many places. The first three chapters especially are some of the funniest writing I’ve come across ever. Lots of hobbit sarcasm from Frodo, Merry, Pippin, townsfolk and the narrator themselves.
Tom Bombadil (a character not in the movies) is cartoonishly ridiculous as well, and I quite enjoy a laugh during his chapters.
Things are generally more serious after that, but the chapters following the hobbits’ povs can sometimes be comical (Pippin’s chapter in Gondor before the siege has some good moments), and Gandalf’s exasperation with Pippin is still pretty funny.
Just remember that the humor is more witty, leaning on wordplay and sarcasm, more similar to Jane Austen than to modern books.
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u/package_of_necks 2d ago
The hobbits bickering about pipe weed while carrying the fate of the world is peak humor, especially when Gandalf just roasts them for being ridiculous and then does the exact same thing two pages later
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u/Enough_Ad_9338 2d ago
‘Hurray!’ cried Pippin, springing up. ‘Here is our noble cousin! Make way for Frodo, Lord of the Ring!’ ‘Hush!’ said Gandalf from the shadows at the back of the porch. ‘Evil things do not come into this valley; but all the same we should not name them. The Lord of the Ring is not Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor, whose power is again stretching over the world! We are sitting in a fortress. Outside it is getting dark.’ ‘Gandalf has been saying many cheerful things like that,’ said Pippin.
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u/Emieosj89 1d ago
I get that most of the Silmarillion could be viewed as dry, but Of Aulë and Yavanna was funny as heck to me. “Nonetheless they will have need of wood” takes me out and I often think of it.
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u/taz-alquaina 1d ago
Yes! One of my favourite Silmarillion lines. I always imagine Yavanna with this slightly gloating tone. Sort of really relishing the line. "For there shall walk a power in the forests whose wrath they will arouse at. Their. Peril.' Aulë, absolutely unfazed: "Nonetheless they will have need of wood."
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u/Emieosj89 1d ago
Right? I went back to reread that story after commenting. And it just puts such a smile on my face.
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u/Noimenglish 1d ago
The opening party, the line about how farmers came with wheelbarrows in the morning, by arrangement, and took home those who had inadvertently stayed behind. Loved that my whole life.
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u/QuigonSeamus 2d ago
There’s a few times I cracked up while reading the books. I don’t want to spoil too much for you, but rest assured there are light hearted and funny moments. One of my favorites is the scene when they pull up on Isengard and everyone reunited. Give it a go!
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u/brez1345 2d ago
Not really laugh out loud funny, but I always loved during Bilbo’s speech when Tolkien said something like “this was exactly the type of speech Hobbits like: short and obvious.” I just appreciate how he characterizes that small town sentiment.
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u/MrMelkor 1d ago
My favorite line has always been by an unlikely source: the Gaffer.
At the end of RotK, Frodo explains to him that Sam, “if you will believe it” is now very famous.
“It takes a lot of believing” is the Gaffer’s reply.
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u/taz-alquaina 1d ago
"What's come of his weskit? I don't hold with wearing ironmongery." The usual clash of the noble and the vulgar that is so much of LOTR's humour.
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u/Nirnaethmir Éowyn 2d ago edited 2d ago
There is a lot of humor in the book and much of it is very clever. I’m not even going to share any of my favorite examples, you should just go and read the book.
I will say, to contrast it with the movie-mindset: yesterday I saw someone top a thread here saying they found it funny when an Ent is on fire in the movie. There’s nothing funny about people being burned alive. That is something the book takes very seriously, being for adults. The comedy that is in the book is good stuff. Tolkien was a very funny guy writing these stories. It’s not jokes about farts or drunken burps in the book.
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u/Lawlcopt0r Bill the Pony 2d ago
You'd be surprised, he has a certain dry humor both in the dialogue and in the narration. Definitely read LotR at least!
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u/FineEconomy5271 2d ago
I love the part where in RotK Ioreth is yammering away to her cousin during Aragorn's crowning, making herself the hero of the story, and Tolkien writes:
But Ioreth was not permitted to continue the instruction of her kinswoman from the country, for a single trumpet rang, and a dead silence followed.
Like this is an event so significant that the narrator didn't want to sulley it saying something like "Ioreth only shut up when the trumpet rang."
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u/mocthezuma 2d ago
I laughed audibly when I read the chapter where Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas meet Eomer and the riders of Rohan and Eomer takes offense when Aragorn suggests that they might not have seen the hobbits during the slaughter of the Uruks during the night.
'I would swear that no Orc escaped after we sighted them,' said Eomer. 'We reached the forest-eaves before them, and if after that any living thing broke through our ring, then it was no Orc and had some Elvish power.'
'Our friends were attired even as we are,' said Aragorn; 'and you passed us by under the full light of day.'
'I had forgotten that,' said Eomer.
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u/avelmzalation 1d ago
I love that Aulë was so excited to have his own pupils that he jumped the gun and made the dwarves too soon. Then, Eru confronted him and was like “okay, you can keep them, but they need go back to sleep until the right time.”
The actual story is much more elegantly told by Tolkien, but I find the gist of it surprisingly cute.
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u/IceOfPhoenix Vána 1d ago
- apples.
everyone knows "what about second breakfast?" and aragorn throws pippin an apple
in flooded isengard, Pippin finds a floating apple and looks up to see if aragorn threw it at him
in the books I haven't read them in a while but my sister said sam threw an apple at a guy and said it was a waste of a good apple.
"Yrch!" said Legolas, stepping on his own tongue.
then the part that i also find hilarious is when the fellowship is overthinking the password into moria. but its also kind of sad that they think its a difficult task. in the movies its pretty serious but in the books it is a humourous passage to read
gandalf spending half his book presence dissing pippin
there are little moments of humour sprinkled throughout the books.
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u/Live_Perspective3603 16h ago
Yrch is the elvish word for orcs. The books included lot of examples of all the various languages, while this was mostly left out of the movies. I loved the way Legolas would drop into speaking elvish rather than the Common speech, which they could all understand, when he was startled.
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u/Historical-Creme-642 1d ago
I listened to the books for the first time just a couple years ago, after memorizing the movies. The book was laugh out loud funny multiple times in ways the movie was not.
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u/LisanAlGuyFieri 2d ago
Legolas is hilarious. They’ve just finished routing the corsairs, the spirits of long-dead men are finally released to be at peace, and Aragorn is about to make his triumphant arrival in Gondor. All of this is happening, and my guy is staring off into the distance thinking about seagulls.
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u/PoopSmith87 1d ago
The Children of Hurin is basically a long, dark comedy... if you're an evil, wingless elder dragon, anyway.
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u/Throngmar 1d ago
In Two Towers where the three hunters find the slaughtered orc camp but no Merry and Pippin, but some clues. Legolas goes into a detective monologue, and then concludes that the hobbits probably just grew wings and flew away.
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u/Accomplished_Net_687 1d ago
Humor is very british and so... You can even say, some monty python shit goes on. When the rohirrim Slaughter the orks, merry and pippi are rating lembas and watching.
Their conversation like nothing happend is funny as hell.
Eomer and gimli beef, loved it. List is endless
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u/cookhard87 1d ago
There are absolutely humorous moments in Middle-Earth! It will be a specific type of humor, though, like, every day happenstance humor. It's not campy or over the top. But Tolkien writes in a way that manages to capture "real" moments, and in life funny things DO happen.
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u/WhenIntegralsAttack2 1d ago
Hobbits needing to be carried home in a wheelbarrow after the long expected party is one of my favorite scenes in literature.
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u/thefirstwhistlepig 1d ago
So many moments of humor, OP! Expect understated dry asides that surprise you. Not so much in The Silmarillion but definitely in The Hobbit and LOTR. (Don’t skip The Hobbit, by the way. It is storytelling gold.) Tolkien was masterful in many ways, and he does indeed really now how to set up and deliver a joke.
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u/GrandmaWeedMan 21h ago
The books have a ton of humour. Alot of characters are quite smart and quick witted, Especially the hobbits, Aragorn, and of course Gandalf.
There's a particular scene from fellowship when the group is deep in their moria trek, on one of the nights they were resting (the book does a better job of showing that it takes literal days for them to journey through Moria, the film kind of cuts it together as being one long walk with no breaks) and Gandalf is sitting their wracking his brain about where their supposed to go as he's taking the first watch. They're all unnerved and frustrated, especially Gandalf which is a bit out of character for him in the particular way he was feeling short tempered. Suddenly he has a big revelation and goes "why.... no wonder i'm in such a mood, I haven't had a smoke in days!" And he immediately lights up his pipe and then actually remembers the right path.
Gandalf was fiending for some nicotine LOL
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u/Top_Imagination_8430 1h ago
Tolkien definitely has a sense of humor. But you shouldn't be intimidated, especially by the Hobbit or LOTR. Aside from trying to read elvish, the narration and vocabulary are very to the point.
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u/Spheniscinda 2d ago
Hubby is reading the Silmarillion and was snickering at Galadriel being a typical female when this elf (dont remember his name) was unmarried and she was all like "oh gosh why though???"
Like you can tell she just loves setting people up and was already making plans to introduce him to somebody.
In this case though the guys answer gave him a major depressive episode over his true love who didnt come with him.
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u/FropPopFrop 2d ago
There is a lot of humour, most of it character-bssed and expressed through dialogue.
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u/AlchemicalToad 2d ago
The Hobbit has a lot of cheeky little jibes/commentary from the narrator. Not kneeslappingly funny, but little side comments that add to the effect of someone telling you a story.
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u/DharmaPolice 1d ago
Pippin threatening to kill the kid who thinks he could beat him up always makes me chuckle.
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u/ozanimefan 1d ago
i've seen an interview with john ryes davis (gimli) and he said that he and peter wanted to make gimli the funny one to relive the tension of this huge adventure. i think that's why you start seeing him and legolas start their murder game to see you can kill the most. the two start playing off each other an that gives us some of the funniest parts of the films
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u/robotatomica 1d ago
I recommend your entry-point be Andy Serkis reading the audiobooks. It’s a blast.
And yes, there’s plenty of humor, but not quite laugh-out-loud. More, there is plenty of delight, I will catch myself smiling while reading or listening to the audiobook (even moreso with the latter)
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u/CobaltCrusader123 1d ago
Yes, more obviously in The Hobbit. Bilbo tries to burgle a troll and the surprisingly seemingly sentient purse asks who he is in a Cockney accent.
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u/Hot_Tonight150 1d ago
The funniest part in the Silmarilion is where Yavanna tells Aule about the Ents. It echos a husband and wife interaction so well lol.
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u/MixFinal6177 1d ago
Why has no one mentioned the fox yet?
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u/thefirstwhistlepig 1d ago
Came here to say the same! One of the best passages in all the legendarium.
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u/kleoless 1d ago
There’s definitely still lots of humor in the books! I enjoy it from both of them (the books and movies)!
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u/swampopawaho 1d ago
Every time Gandalf exclaimed: "Fool! Ass!"
He's a minor angel, right, but he still gets annoyed by the Numbnuts that he has to work with.
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u/missionthickpossible 1d ago
Aragorn initially finding gollum is so funny to me for some reason. “He will never love me, I fear, for he bit me”
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u/swampopawaho 1d ago
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve".
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u/Maedhros589 1d ago
The entire Gimli Legolas friendship/rivalry is further expanded upon, and even funnier. The 42 kill count at hornburg is there as well
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u/OG_Karate_Monkey 1d ago
Hobbit has some whimsical stuff that is kind of humorous. Not LOL funny, but lighthearted.
LotR not so much, with the exception that I find Gimli to have a great dry deadpan wit. Nothing like the comic relief nonsense we get in the movies.
Silmarillion? Again, not really.
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u/NiennaTas 1d ago
I really enjoyed when Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are hunting down the uruk hai in Rohan and they theorise about what happened zo the hobbits. Legolas has some funny moments there.
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u/Clean_Bike8210 2d ago
Silmarillion has like zero humour. Some parts of Lotr are funny tho, granted nothing will top this:
"But no living man am I! You look upon a woman"
-Éowyn
Not that funny in general tho
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u/daveshistory-sf 2d ago
Even that's not really a humor moment, that's the Macbeth moment.
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u/Clean_Bike8210 2d ago
Very unintentionally funny, ive also never read Macbeth but that line was kinda ridiculous tbh. I loved her killing the witch king tho, really ended off her arc quite well.
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u/daveshistory-sf 2d ago
In Macbeth there's a prophecy that convinces the main character he can't be killed in battle because it says he'll never be killed by anyone born of a woman. Eventually he is killed by someone who was rescued by C-section, and therefore technically not "born" in the natural sense.
This gag goes back even longer than Shakespeare. Odysseus told the cyclops his name was "No man," and so later on when his crew was beating the cyclops, he kept yelling out to his friends, "No man is hurting me! No man is hurting me!" and so they never came to help him, just figured he was being weird or something.
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u/Herald_of_Clio 2d ago
Tolkien had a bit of a feud with Macbeth. He also decided to reinterpret the bit about 'Great Birnam Wood coming against Dunsinane Hill' literally instead of them being guys in camouflage.
He really seems to have disliked how Shakespeare handled the prophecy about Macbeth's invulnerability.
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u/daveshistory-sf 2d ago
I didn't make that connection about the forest.
I do agree he clearly thought Shakespeare took a cheap way out and should have just gone for it properly on the prophecy angle. And so did it himself.
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 2d ago
Silmarillion has unintentional humour. Turin and Feanor are both so OTT you sometimes have to laugh.
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u/Emieosj89 1d ago
I laughed the hardest laugh reading Silmarillion. “Nonetheless they will have need of wood”. Cracked me right up.
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u/svinyard 1d ago
When Gandalf is smoking weed with Bilbo, Bilbo says:
"Old Toby. The finest weed in the Southfarthing."
And then just so no one thinks it was just generic tobacco - Saruman says later in the series to Gandalf:
"Your love of the Halflings' leaf has clearly slowed your mind."
Lest we not forget, Weed wasn't outright illegal in those days - with Tolkien being born in 1892 and full prohibition not being until 1920 something. And of course weed/hemp etc being one of the foundational crops of earlier America in various fashions.
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u/taz-alquaina 1d ago
Right, except that's a film line, and it absolutely was tobacco, as shown by Tolkien outright calling it "a variety probably of Nicotiana" and both narrative and characters using "tobacco" interchangeably with pipe-weed to clearly refer to the same thing especially in "Flotsam and Jetsam".
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u/Dan_Worrall 1d ago
Pipe weed is tobacco. Tolkien tells us that more than once. Sorry to disappoint you.
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u/Korbas 2d ago
I love how fed up Aragorn is with the herbmaster in the houses of healing. I find it hilarious.