One Internet to Rule Them All
DON’T END MY EVIL REIGN, BRO
photo via funnyjunk.com
It’s been a very Hobbitastic week around here. We’ve had a great look at LotR games, both video and roleplaying, an essay on the original works of Tolkien and a review of An Unexpected Journey. But there’s a whole world that Tolkien’s works have touched and no one’s been brave enough to mention it until me, your intrepid from-the-internet reporter.
The internet. A virtual Mordor of memes and viral videos.
You Shall Not Pass
photo via MyMiddleEarth.com
photo via memecenter.com
Well, you shan’t.
How else could the internet memorialize one of the most epic scenes in modern cinema? Well, do what the internet does with everything else; repeat it in every way possible. One of the most quotable lines from the Jackson trilogy is now also one of the internet’s favorite memes.
To be fair, there’s a pretty valid reason why this is such a perfectly quotable line. Who doesn’t want to be a pipe-smoking, secret badass, sword-wielding non-conjurer of cheap tricks? (I still like Dumbledore more, but we’ve well established I am a heathen.)
One Does Not Simply
photo via memegenerator.com
Research for this article has proven this one million percent true.
photo via memegenerator.com
This is by far the most overplayed meme and not just from The Lord of the Rings. This might be one of the most overplayed memes on the internet. Still going strong nearly 12 years after The Fellowship of the Ring (and just how old do you feel now?).
This meme has a shelf-life longer than any of Sean Bean’s characters.
Mashed Taters
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihMMw0rnKz4?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
An excellent piece of cooking advice from Samwise to Gollum, here we learn the diverse culinary particulars of that favorite Hobbit staple; po-tay-toes. Boil ’em, mash ’em, serve ’em in a complex au gratin dish requiring an hour of prep and two hours cook time.
Confused Gandalf
White…council…?
photo via memegenerator.com
I really don’t.
photo via memegenerator.com
I resembled this meme for about a quarter of The Hobbit. While I loved the book, I haven’t read it since I was about seven years old. That paired with my (apparently disgraceful) lack of having read The Two Towers, Return of the King and The Similarion, there was quite a few places where I was lost during the two hours and forty seven minutes of beautiful scenery and Thorin Oakenshield’s flowing raven locks.
…I really liked Thorin Oakenshield’s flowing raven locks, by the way. This is the first time in my life I’ve had the conscious thought ‘Wow, that fantasy dwarf is really attractive. With his long hair and his dashing pose and his singing and his WAIT IS THIS GUY REALLY FROM THE SAME PLACE AS GIMLI?’
Taking the Hobbits to Isengard
LEGOLAS I DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2yEbnxVli0?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
This is my all time favorite Tolkien-related anything.
I mean seriously – I fell asleep during The Battle of Helm’s Deep.
photo via quickmeme.com
As Reuben mentioned in his article; I’m not a particularly large fan of most of Tolkien’s works (with the exception of The Hobbit, which I do love to death and have ever since reading it at seven years old). While I respect everything he’s done for the genre, it’s just not my thing, not my niche, not my dish. But I do love what Middle Earth has given the world – beyond establishing fantasy as it’s own drama, we have amazing movies, excellent video games, hilariously bad roleplaying games and an animated movie, memes, collective running jokes and far more.
It’s not just that people love to make fun of The Lord of the Rings; it’s that people love The Lord of the Rings. And when you love something, it will touch all aspects of your life. We, as a society (and for once, not just the nerd aspect of it), love this story the way we do, it has touched every aspect of our culture. And like any valuable classic, it will continue to do so well into the future.
