Bored of the Rings

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Bored of the Rings (BOTR) is the shared title of various independent parodies of The Lord of the Rings (LOTR), a novel by J. R. R. Tolkien.

1 Harvard Lampoon novel
- 1.1 Characters
2 McNeill adventure game
3 MAD Magazine series
4 Glenn Millar film
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Harvard Lampoon novel

Bored of the Rings is a short satirical novel by Henry N. Beard and Douglas C. Kenney, first published in 1969 by Signet for the Harvard Lampoon.

This parody follows the general plot of The Lord of the Rings, including the Preface, Prologue, poetry, and songs, while making light of all that Tolkien made very serious (e.g. "He would have finished him off then and there, but pity stayed his hand. It's a pity I've run out of bullets, he thought, as he went back up the tunnel..."). Names and the various languages are parodied by using brand names of products which mimic their sounds. There are many topical references which, like the brand names, are now dated.

The Signet first edition cover, which parodies the (1965) LOTR paperback cover by artist Barbara Remington [1], was drawn by Michael K. Frith. William S. Donnell's parody map of Lower Middle Earth substitutes Tüdør for Gondor and Fördør for Mordor.

[edit] Characters

Notable characters from Lower Middle Earth (*Middle-earth*)
BOTR	Allusion	LOTR
Goodgulf Greyteeth, the good wizard	"a discredited Rosicrucian" and "a 32nd Degree Mason and Honorary Shriner" (Brand name of a Gulf Oil product)	Gandalf Greyhame
Boggies	(not for the faint of heart)	Hobbits
Dildo Bugger of Bag Eye	Dildo; bugger	Bilbo Baggins of Bag End
Frito Bugger	Fritos, a corn chips brand	Frodo Baggins
Spam Gangree	SPAM, a food brand; gangrene	Samwise Gamgee
Moxie Dingleberry	Moxie, a soft drink brand; see also dingleberry	Merry
Pepsi Dingleberry	Pepsi, a soft drink brand	Pippin
Stomper, or Arrowroot, son of Arrowshirt	Arrowroot, a brand of bland biscuits for babies and the elderly, and Arrow shirt, a brand of men's dress shirt	Strider or Aragorn, son of Arathorn
Gimlet, son of Groin	the tool or cocktail gimlet, groin	Gimli, son of Glóin
Legolam	"leg of lamb"	Legolas
Bromosel	Bromo-Seltzer, an indigestion-relief product	Boromir
Eorache	"ear ache"	Éowyn/Arwen
Tim Benzedrine	Benzedrine—a stimulant drug popular during the 1960s—and former Harvard professor Timothy Leary	Tom Bombadil
Goddam	"God damn"	Gollum
Sorhed, the evil wizard, ruler of Fordor	"Sore head"; "four door," evil kingdom opposed to "Two-dor" (Tudor)	Sauron, ruler of Mordor
Serutan the wizard of Isinglass	Serutan is the name of a laxative product, the name of which is "Natures" spelled backwards; Isinglass, a substance used in clarifying wine.	Saruman, the wizard of Isengard

[edit] McNeill adventure game

Bored of the Rings is an adventure game, written by Fergus McNeill. It first released by Delta 4 Software in 1985, and then later re-released by Silversoft. It was created independently of other LOTR parodies^{[citation needed]}. In these games, Frodo and Bilbo Baggins were renamed Fordo and Bimbo Faggins. The game is in three parts and was written using The Quill and The Illustrator. It was later followed up with the prequel The Boggit.

[edit] MAD Magazine series

Bored of the Rings is the running title of MAD Magazine's parodies of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. All three parodies were illustrated by Hermann Mejia and written by Desmond Devlin.

MAD Magazine parodies of LOTR films
Film subtitle	MAD Magazine subtitle	First appeared
The Fellowship of the Ring	The Feeble Shtick of Ka-Ching!	April 2002
The Two Towers	The Two+ Hours	April 2003
The Return of the King	Rehash of the Thing	April 2004

While a few of the characters have the same parodied names as listed above (notably Legolamb, Sorehead, and Spam Gangrene), the rest have different names. Other characters in these parodies include: Dodo Gaggings, Billboard Gaggings, Gandoof the Gray (or Gandoof the White), Argon, Gimmicki, Golfclub (aka Cheeseball or Jar-Jar Jr.), Baggybuns, Pimple, Peppercorn, Aspercreme, and the Slobbits. The parodies emphasize the films' tortured or illogical plot points and sometimes glacial pacing:

Billboard Gaggings: "Dodo, I want you to have this. It's magic Slobbit chain mail that will protect you from harm!"

Dodo Gaggings: "Nice timing! The only way this gift could matter more to me is if I'd gotten it back in the Shire! You know, like before I got stabbed?"

[edit] Glenn Millar film

Bored of the Rings is a movie parody written in 2005 by Glenn Millar. Although inspired by the Harvard Lampoon book, the movie has updated the language and includes numerous references to drugs and homosexuality. For example, Gandalf becomes "Ganj-alf the Green".