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Dúnedain
01-26-2003, 04:38 PM
I read this today and though it was damn funny, lol, check this out.


Here is a link to it, but you can also read it below, be sure to click on the picture link as well :D

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/5023564.htm

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Posted on Sun, Jan. 26, 2003

Why can't they just lose the ring in the sink?
DAVE BARRY

picture link: http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/4998/24980407838.jpg

I finally saw the new Lord of the Rings movie, which is entitled Lord of the Rings II: A LOT More Stuff Happens. It's a tad on the long side (three days) but I am not complaining. My eyeballs were literally riveted to the screen, by literal rivets, from the moment I sat down until the moment I lost all sensation in my lower body.

Yes, this is a classic movie, the kind that makes you laugh; makes you cry; makes you wonder, over and over, if this would be a good time to go to the bathroom. Above all, it's a movie that makes you think about the issues raised by the plot, the main issue being: What the heck IS the plot?

I say this because it's a very complicated story, with numerous subplots and something like 11,000 major characters, most of whom have hard-to-remember names like ''Flagodirt'' or ''Grempkin.'' So today, as a service to all of you who were confused by this great movie, I present the following:

SIMPLIFIED SCREENPLAY FOR LORD OF THE RINGS II

(Scene 1)

FRODO: Darn! I still have this darned ring that I got in the first movie!

SAMWISE: The ring with the terrible power that causes everyone who comes near it to over-act?

FRODO: Yes! And to destroy it, we must walk, slowly, in real time, all the way across New Zealand!

SAMWISE: But who will guide us?

FRODO: How about a reptilian computer-generated creature with a bad comb-over?

SAMWISE: Dick Cheney's in this movie?

GOLLUM: Very funny, Hobbitt-breath.

(Scene 2:)

LORD ARAGORN: Well, my two trusty companions -- Legolas, the Strangely Tall Elf; and Gimli, the Comic Relief Dwarf -- in our subplot, we are pursuing Merry and Pippin, who have been captured by Orcs, and now we find ourselves in the Kingdom of Rohan, ruled by King Theoden, whose daughter, Eowyn, will become my second love interest once the king is released from the spell cast by his trusted counselor, Grima Wormtongue, who is secretly in league with the evil wizard Saruman!

LEGOLAS: I have no idea what you're talking about.

LORD ARAGORN: Me either. I'm just reading the script.

GIMLI: Well, I'm really short!

(Laughter)

LORD ARAGORN: But enough explanatory dialogue. It's time for one of the estimated 17 big sword-clanging battles we have in this movie with hideous computer-generated monsters who always outnumber us by the thousands, although we defeat them every time, because we are courageous heroes!

LEGOLAS: Also, they have the hand-to-hand-combat skills of alfalfa.

MONSTERS: Arrrrrr.

SWORDS: CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

(Scene 3:)

MERRY: Well, Pippin, we escaped the Orcs, and now we are being carried around by talking trees!

PIPPIN: Apparently, the audience will swallow anything!

TREE: It gets worse! Later on, we engage in branch-to-hand combat! (Scene 4)

MONSTERS: Arrrrrr

SWORDS: CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! (Scene 5)

FRODO: How come, if I'm the protagonist, Lord Aragorn has TWO love interests, and I'm stuck in a subplot with Dick Cheney?

GOLLUM: Maybe it's because your big hairy feet make you look like you're wearing a pair of dead weasels.

(Scene 6)

LORD ARAGORN: Well, Legolas and Gimli, with the help of Gandalf the White, formerly Gandalf the Grey, also known as Gandalf the Beige, we have defeated the Uruk-hai in a giant computer-generated battle. Now we must make haste to the Really Big Rock of Karambador, before the forces of Ba'Zoot, led by the evil King Weltpimple, conquer the Mullions of Gneep and obtain the Remote Control Unit of Doom!

LEGOLAS: Now you're just making stuff up.

LORD ARAGORN: Well, it's not as stupid as the kung-fu trees.

GIMLI: I'm still short!

(Laughter)

(Scene 7)

FRODO: UH-oh! The movie is over, and I still have this darned ring! Do you realize what that means?

SAMWISE: That ''Weasel Feet'' would be a good name for a rock band?

FRODO: Yes, as would ''Kung Fu Trees'' and ''Combat Alfalfa.'' But my point is that the forces of Evil have been let loose upon the land, which means soon there will be...

SAMWISE: No! Not that!

FRODO: Yes. Another sequel.

MONSTERS: Arrrrrr.

straight_face
01-26-2003, 04:55 PM
:) Indeed, I also read this particular article and discovered it to be hilarious, but true in some ways. I was actually going to enter the Barrow-downs chat and ask if anyone had read it by chance.

Shadowfax
01-26-2003, 05:13 PM
Hehehe. That is funny! Thanks for the link.

Nurvingiel
01-27-2003, 04:19 AM
That was awesome! I love a good LotR spoof. And Dave Barry is really funny, even though I don't always understand American humour.

Lizra
01-27-2003, 08:05 AM
Heh heh, Dave Barry reminds me of the annoying boy who would sit behind you in 5th grade and make body function noises! :rolleyes: :D I like "Gandalf the Beige" and "Clang, clang, clang! Gimli speaks! ha ha ha ha ! :rolleyes: :)

WallRocker
01-27-2003, 10:28 AM
Read it yesterday in the paper. Pretty gosh dang funny:D

azalea
04-20-2003, 04:05 PM
Bringing this to the top (had closed duplicate thread about it).

Jonathan
04-20-2003, 04:08 PM
Wow, this TTT review was the funniest I've ever seen :D I'm going to show it to my friends.

Salquënòrëwen
04-20-2003, 05:31 PM
Dead weasles.....Lol!!!!:D :D :D

I also read that previous, it was in my local newspaper along with another article about a person who graduated from the same high school I'll be going to that worked as one of the head computer animation people. He's the one who mostly made the cave troll, I forgot his name though....:confused:

SamwiseGamgeeOTS
04-20-2003, 05:44 PM
I've read this before but, see....this was funny, but it angered me...made us look bad...although it was funny..........hehe heheh hehehe *rolls on the floor and laughs uncontrolably*

Lizra
04-20-2003, 08:24 PM
So today he prints some of the complaints from the "very, VERY serious fans of the movie and the book by the late J.R.R. "Scooter" Tolkien." (His words! :D) I don't have time to type it, but I do wonder what the "Hoosier" joke is at the end, when he asks "Are you, by any chance Hoosiers?" :( Now I'm mad! :D Must be some inter-midwest insult!

Elf Girl
04-20-2003, 08:28 PM
In the now-closed thread, somebody was saying about how they thought it was stupid. I don't get that, it was a parody, not a terribly good parody perhaps, but a parody, and the stuff at the beginning about boring-ness is all in fun. (It was pretty boring actually... *hides*)

Aralyn
04-20-2003, 10:36 PM
Just let me find my sword ElfGirl and I will deal appropaitaly with you. (after I learn how to spell which might take awhile);)

azalea
04-21-2003, 02:10 PM
yes, Lizra, I thought it was funny that Aralyn brought up this subject again, and then that very day an apology was issued! That was strange! I didn't get the Hoosiers thing either, but isn't he from the Midwest? It must have something to do with that.

Lizra
04-21-2003, 02:16 PM
Yeah, I think he's from Illinois...? Those letters sounded like they were from Kentuckians to me! :D I can just imagine how "boring" most of them were! :rolleyes: :D

Elfhelm
04-21-2003, 02:36 PM
I think it is stupid. It's a parody, yes, but a stupid one. It basically says, I'm ignorant but I consider myself able to judge anyway. I'm more inclined to cry than laugh when people behave like that.

straight_face
04-21-2003, 02:40 PM
I think Dave Barry is one of the most hilarious column writers ever! Of course, I tend to have a different sense of humor than others.

Lizra
04-21-2003, 04:13 PM
Yeah! I used to try not to like him cause he really does remind me of that fifth grade kid who was always making the fart noises in class. :D (That kid was actually funny too!) Anyway, I try not to like him, but he cracks me up, so I do! Lighten up Elfhelm! :)

Bombadillo
04-21-2003, 04:17 PM
I'd read that before. I think it's a great synopsis.

SamNotSoWise
04-23-2003, 12:25 PM
The Hoosier reference was back to an article Barry wrote in January of 2003 where he implied that "Hoosier" was an unusual nickname and maybe reflected poorly on the intelligence of people from Indiana.

Now, I'm not saying I agree with him at all (my daughter is at college in Indiana, my brother-in-law lives there and so do some good and very intelligent friends), but anyone who gets insulted by a Dave Barry column is taking life way too seriously.

He's a humorist--he makes jokes. So learn to laugh at yourself, whether you are from Indiana or you love Tolkien (as I do) or whatever.

straight_face
04-23-2003, 04:50 PM
Originally posted by SamNotSoWise


He's a humorist--he makes jokes. So learn to laugh at yourself, whether you are from Indiana or you love Tolkien (as I do) or whatever.

Amen to that, brotha.

Aralyn
04-23-2003, 08:35 PM
I'd laugh if he was funny

Indril Anarion
04-23-2003, 08:43 PM
ha, Ha....it sounds like my friends talking...but it was pretty funny...

Bombadillo
04-23-2003, 08:59 PM
LEGOLAS: I have no idea what you're talking about.

LORD ARAGORN: Me either. I'm just reading the script.

GIMLI: Well, I'm really short!

Hahahaha! I'm sure I'd fall off the chair if I wasn't on the floor already.

TopazJedi
04-25-2003, 11:10 PM
I think it is stupid. It's a parody, yes, but a stupid one. It basically says, I'm ignorant but I consider myself able to judge anyway. I'm more inclined to cry than laugh when people behave like that.

I think that it was a pretty respectful parody. As the very beginning he says
I am not complaining. My eyeballs were literally riveted to the screen, by literal rivets, from the moment I sat down until the moment I lost all sensation in my lower body.
He said he wasn't complaining, and i think that comapared to what he could have said, It wasn't that bad. I've seen a lot worse parodies, that were written by tolkien fans. And he couldn't have been that ignorant, other wise he wouldn't have been able to write the run-on sentance part of it (my fav. part, since i actually understood the whole thing!)

BTW, where did you all see it? I saw it in the Washington Post Magazine, but you cant all be from Washington DC. I read his article every week, and i cant wait to see if he does one on ROTK. The Joke about the dead weasels being a good name for a band comes from two previous, seperate jokes. First, in almost all his articles, Dave usually chooses a weird phrase from earlier and says "that would be a good name for a band". And in one of his articles, he explains that he finds the word weasel hilarious, and any joke can be made better if you use the word weasel in it.

I was glad to see this thread, b/c i wanted to ask you people if you thought the "I'm still short" Gimli joke was making a referance to the fact that PJ didn't do a good job making JRD look small, thus "I'm still short" should result in you thinking "No he isn't!!". This is N-O-T my opinion, but my mom's. I think DB was making fun of the fact that Gimli had become the new comic relief. But my mom refuses to believe me, and says that the movie didn't do good job convincing her that JRD or the hobbits were short. AAARGH!

azalea
05-04-2003, 02:18 PM
His column is syndicated, so it appears in newspapers around the country whose parent companies buy it to be put in.

The Gimli thing was indeed because of the cheap shots PJ took at him due to his stature.:rolleyes:

durin's bane
05-04-2003, 06:05 PM
Lol! That Dave Barry guy is a funny man. :D