Back in the late 1960s when Lord of the Rings was rocketing into popularity, National Lampoon stepped up with a predictable parody, Bored of the Rings, in which Bilbo and Frodo became Dildo (naturally) and Frito, Gandalf became Goodgulf, etc. Hold this memory.
Now Amazon has spent a billion dollars to produce a prequel to the Lord of the Rings (Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power) based on the material Tolkien laid out in The Silmarillion, which even devotees of Dungeons and Dragons had a hard time getting though. The first two episodes are out, and are receiving . . . mixed reviews. I watched the first episode on an airplane, where I usually concentrate better on video because of the captive environment. But it seemed defective in many ways. I won’t bother with them now. We’ll see what subsequent episodes can bring. It could easily end up being Bored of the Rings for real.
One aspect drawing comment is that the cast is “diverse” and seems to be going out of its way to emphasize female characters, whereas the books didn’t, but who cares if the story and drama are good (like an all-black musical about Alexander Hamilton). I did include a chart about this in the latest Geek in Pictures:
Naturally the geniuses at the Babylon Bee have run with this theme, and have easily surpassed the National Lampoon—five minutes of topical comedy gold:
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