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The Middle-earth fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien have had a profound and wide-ranging impact on popular culture. This is especially true for The Lord of the Rings, ever since its publication in the 1950s, but especially throughout the 1960s and 1970s, where young people embraced it as a countercultural saga, and its influence has been vastly extended in the present day, thanks to the live-action film trilogy by Peter Jackson. Many of the following references are directly inspired by the latter films rather than the book.
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Movies, television, and radio
In an episode of the sitcom Friends, Ross and Chandler speak about a university friend, called "Gandalf (-the Party Wizard)." When Joey asks why they call him Gandalf, they reply, "Didn't you read the Lord of the Rings in high school?" to which Joey responds, "No, I had sex in high school."
In addition to spoofing elements of The Lord of the Rings, South Park has a nurse with a conjoined twin fetus on her head called Nurse Gollum.
The TV show Babylon 5 (1993-1998) includes occasional homages to The Lord of the Rings, as well as epic themes drawn from similar mythological roots. See Babylon 5 influences for a more detailed exploration.
In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode Here Thar Be Dwarves, Billy finds his way to the Dwarves stronghold Boringya. There Dwarves leader "Beardbottom" tells him about the on-going Dwarves' war with Elves over the monopoly on the cookie industry, and asks him for an aid in the big final assault on an Elves Cookie Factory. A flashback about the origins of the war is a nod to the Council of Elrond, where the races are shown dividing up a monopol on the fast-food industry.
The TV show Gilmore Girls often has references to The Lord of the Rings in various episodes.
In an episode of The Simpsons, the family goes to a dude ranch. While there they are taken on a picnic by Cookie, the ranch owner. After finishing Cookie calls "Cleany" to come clean up. Cleany's movements and mannerisms are modeled precisely after Gollum and he refers to the garbage as his "precious." Cleany was voiced by Andy Serkis.
In Disney's sequel to The Emperor's New Groove, Kronk's New Groove, Yzma causes people in a retirement home to become addicted to a "youth potion" that is actually green water. When Kronk buys out the retirement home, Rudy (the old man that Emperor Kuzco had thrown out the window in the first movie) comes and begs for a spot. When Kronk takes out the "potion," Rudy jumps up and takes it out of his hand and then bends his back, rubbing the potion. Imitating Gollum, he then said, "My precious...Kronk just wants it all for himself!"
In an episode of Family Guy, Stewie is at the park. When he sees another kid at the jungle gym Stewie pushes the kid on the ground and says "Cry, cry like Sauron when he lost his contacts." The scene then shifts to a cutaway showing the Eye of Sauron frantically searching for his lost contact.
On another episode of Family Guy, there is a scene that also parodies the movie Poltergeist as well as The Lord of the Rings. Chris is thrown from his bedroom window into the clutches of a living tree. The scene eventually parodies the epic confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog as seen in The Lord of the Rings when Herbert the Creepy Old Pedophile shows up to save Chris. Herbert recites the film trilogy Gandalf's line, "You shall not pass!".
In the episode "Two Birds of a Feather" of Magnum, P.I., a scene showing Magnum and his friends during the Vietnam War, his team uses the codename "Frodo" while trying to contact "Gandalf" to get air support.
In the show Odd Job Jack, episode 2.02 (Lord of the Three Ring Binder) spoofs The Lord of the Rings, with Jack as Frodo (and Déagol, when Jack was in his College years).
The episode "D & DD" of the animated series Dexter's Laboratory spoofs Dungeons and Dragons in general (even mentioning a warrior called "Gygax"), but inserts references to Middle-earth. Dexter is forced to play as "Hodo the Furry-footed Burrower", a hobbit/halfling whose name is possibly a combination of "Hobbit" and "Frodo".
Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report has made several references to both The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth and Dungeons and Dragons on his show.
In the movie Clerks II, Randal equates the Lord of The Rings movies as being 3 movies about walking. The first movie is demonstrated by Randal taking an exaggerated step while blank-faced; the second by tripping and looking back and down mid-walk; the third consisting of the same walk, culminating in a gesture to remove the ring from the finger and toss it downward. Before the film was made, director Kevin Smith had done the exact same thing during an appearance on The Tonight Show.
Talk show host Rush Limbaugh once described himself as a black smoke from Mordor (as if hindering the political party considered left of center).
In the Stargate Atlantis episode "Critical Mass", Dr. Bill Lee uses the lighting of the beacons of Gondor to explain his idea of relaying a message to Atlantis.
In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Partying is Such Sweet Soiree", when Mac goes on a sugar-high rampage, he pets sugar-related objects and says, "My precious..." immitating Gollum.
An episode of MADtv did a parody of Lord of the Rings known as "Lords of the Bling" where Bill Cosby played Gandalf and said, "We have to take the ring to Mordor, by the MotoPhoto!" Frodo was now Froho.
In the W.I.T.C.H. episode "G is for Garbage", when Irma and Blunk go to Blunk's hideout, Blunk says, "My precious..." while loving his trash, and he even sounds like Gollum.
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Music
The Beatles' song "She Said, She Said" includes a passing reference to The Lord of the Rings, and writer John Lennon was known to have been a fan of them. During the song's fade-out, Lennon can be heard singing a series of seemingly nonsensical sounds; these phrases are either a Lennon pre-taped vocal played backwards, or Lennon imitating the sound of a reverse-tape voice. At the start of the fade-out Lennon can clearly be heard chanting the words "Ash Nazg", the first two words of the invocation engraved on the Ring of Power.
Tom Rapp set most of the verse of the One Ring ("Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky...") to music as "Ring Thing" in Pearls Before Swine's second album, Balaklava (1968).
Swedish keyboard player Bo Hansson recorded an entire concept album titled The Lord of the Rings in 1972, which was performed mostly on electronic keyboard instruments.
Australian jazz musician and composer John Sangster undertook an ambitious three-volume jazz interpretation of the trilogy in the late 1970s, using most of the best Australian jazz musicians of the time as session players
Genesis' song "Stagnation" (from Trespass, 1970) was about Gollum. The most direct references being "And I will wait for ever, beside the silent mirror. And fish for bitter minnows amongst the weeds and slimy water." and "To take all the dust and the dirt from my throat, To wash out the filth that is deep in my guts."
The Austrian musician Gandalf (Heinz Stobl) chose his name with reference to the hobbits' wizard friend. He has composed several pieces of music which deal with themes and characters originating from The Lord of the Rings, some of which can be found on his second album, Visions (1981).
Johan de Meij’s first symphony The Lord of the Rings is based on the trilogy. The symphony consists of five separate movements, each illustrating a personage or an important episode from the series. The symphony was written in the period between March 1984 and December 1987, and had its première in Brussels on 15th March 1988.
The movements are:
I. GANDALF (The Wizard)
II. LOTHLORIEN (The Elvenwood)
III. GOLLUM (Sméagol)
IV. JOURNEY IN THE DARK
a. The Mines of Moria
b. The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm
V. HOBBITS
Enya recorded the song "Lothlórien" in 1991 and also performed the songs "May It Be" and "Aníron" for the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's film of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Some songs by the celtic metal band Cruachan, such as "The Fall of Gondolin" (1992), have been inspired by The Lord of the Rings.
The progressive rock group Glass Hammer has numerous Tolkien-influenced songs, including "Nimrodel", and a CD entitled Journey of the Dúnadan (1993) which is a loose interpretation of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and a CD entitled The Middle-earth Album (2001) which contains several songs recorded "live at the Prancing Pony in Bree".
The Finnish musicians Nightwish have a song called "Elvenpath" on their album Angels Fall First (1997) which features a Lord of the Rings sample. They also have references to Tolkien's works in their song Wishmaster, released on the album of the same name, in 2001, including Elbereth and Lorien. They also recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for their album Once released in 2004.
The Tolkien Ensemble composed original music to all songs and poems in The Lord of the Rings, publishing 4 CDs in total over a period of 8 years, as well as a compilation album in 2006, ordering their songs as they appear in the books. Their work is approved by the Tolkien Estate.
The group Nickel Creek has a song called "The House of Tom Bombadil" (Nickel Creek, 2000).
The Brobdingnagian Bards have named one of their tracks "Tolkien" (2001), and the remix "The Lord of the Rings".
The Spanish metal band Lórien, named after the forest Lothlórien in the novel, released an album in 2002 entitled Secrets of the Eldar with such songs as "The Voice of Saruman".
The music CD "Journey of the Ring" (2005) features an hour of music inspired by Tolkien's novel. The music follows the story chapter by chapter. Called "the unofficial sound track to the books" by fans. http://www.cdbaby.com/all/peters
Australian band Soundestiny released the album 'Shadow Rising' in 2004; this was inspired by The Lord of The Rings, but made no actual mentions of Tolkien character-names or place-names. The CD is Part One of a projected Two-album 'RingLord' concept, the second album being 'Winds of Change' intended for release in 2006.
Many metal bands, especially black metal bands have taken their band name from The Lord of the Rings. Typically the names of evil places and characters are taken. Examples are Burzum (formerly known as Uruk-Hai), Darkthrone, Gorgoroth, Mordor, Sauron. There are also various metal bands owing their names to Tolkien's fictional languages, such as Aglarond (Mexico), Akallabêth (Sweden), Amon Amarth (Sweden), Almáriel (Russia), Amon Din (Serbia), Anarion (Australia), Arda (Austria), Avatar (Belgium), Azaghal (Finland), Azrael (Spain), Cirith Gorgor (Netherlands), Cirith Ungol (US), Dol Amroth (Greece), Izengard (India), Fangorn (Germany) and many more.
The symphonic rock band Marillion was named after the Silmarillion
British stoner rock band Orange Goblin has tracks on their album Frequencies From Planet Ten named "Lothlorien" and "Saruman's Wish", after the Elven forest and the evil wizard in The Lord of the Rings.
All songs by the Finnish metal band Battlelore are based on Middle Earth.
Prog Hard-core band The Fall Of Troy have a song on their eponymously named debut album titled "The March Of The Ents"
There was an early heavy metal band in Lousiana named Shadowfax after Gandalf's steed in The Lord of the Rings.
Prog-rock keyboard player Rick Wakeman has an album entitled " - which is a re-issue of previously recorded material."
Progressive rock band Camel recorded the track "Nimrodel / The Procession / The White Rider" with obvious references to The Lord of the Rings, for their album "Mirage".
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Literature
S.M. Stirling's characters in Dies the Fire and its sequels include a young woman who is obsessed with the works of Tolkien, and ends up founding a military group known as the "Dunedain Rangers." The villain of the trilogy also refers to the trilogy, using Sauron's emblem of the Lidless Eye as the flag of the new nation he founds.
Terry Pratchett's novel Witches Abroad features an encounter with a Gollum-like creature, which jumps on to the main character's boat and proclaims "It'ssss my birthday." Granny Weatherwax then hits the creature with an oar, before quipping "'Orrible little bugger."
There are various references to The Lord of the Rings, e.g. to the Ents, in The Talisman (1984), a novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub. There are also references to The Lord of the Rings in several of Stephen King's other novels (e.g. Insomnia, The Stand, etc.). This is most notable in his fantasy series The Dark Tower, which is based on the Robert Browning poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, but severely influenced by Lord of the Rings.
Robert Jordan has an inn called "The Nine Rings" in The Great Hunt, and when Rand reads the sign in front of the inn, the book states, 'Rand swung down with a smile and tied Red to one of the hitching posts out front. "The Nine Rings" had been one of his favorite adventure stories when he was a boy; he supposed it still was.'
In the Harry Potter series, several people are named after places or people in the Lord of the Rings, examples are a protrait in the Headmaster's Office, called Everard Proudfoot, and an author named Bathilda Bagshot, in which Bagshot Row is the place where Bag End is located.
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Computer and video games
In the MMORPG RuneScape, there is an inn called "The Dancing Donkey", which is a spoof of the Prancing Pony.
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Other games
The Wargames Research Group set of fantasy miniatures rules, Hordes of the Things (HotT), was first published in 1991.
In the MMORPG World of Warcraft, one of the human male's jokes is a joking description of The Lord of The Rings, except the One Ring is replaced by a bracelet and instead of Hobbits the main character is a gnome.
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Satire and parody based on The Lord of the Rings
An independent film company in South Carolina released this treatment as a college humor project.
The first chapter of The Woad To Wuin by Peter David is entitled "Lord of the Thing".
The Lord Of The... whatever, a "transcribed electronic text version", written by the Tolkien fans of the rec.arts.books.tolkien newsgroup as a reply to those who ask where can they download an electronic copy of the book. It has lots of fan in-jokes, like whether Balrogs have wings or not, a long-standing debate in the Tolkien fandom.
Flight of the Conchords claim that their parody Frodo was rejected as a theme song for Peter Jackson's movies. Incidentally, Bret McKenzie (one half of the band) played an elf in the Fellowship, and his character (now known as Figwit) has become an unusual web celebrity, attracting fan sites and even a hate site.
The Ring Thing, a Swiss parody of Peter Jackson's films. However it has received mixed reviews.
MADtv spoofed the series with The Lords of the Bling, with various actors/actresses portraying characters as Gandalf, Frodo, Legolas, etc.
Kingdom O' Magic, by Fergus McNeill. He became famous during the eighties for games such as Bored of the Rings (influenced by, but not adapted from, the Harvard Lampoon book) and The Boggit.
Dead Ringers, BBC Radio/TV satirical comedy show regularly features Lord of the Rings-themed sketches, usually with the characters of Gandalf, Saruman and Frodo.
Bobo, a very popular Serbian voice-over video on scene from the first film, which features Boromir and Frodo as gay lovers. It spawned many other voice-overs.
British Comedy duo French & Saunders have also satired and spoofed in detail Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring in a BBC 2002 Easter Special entitled "The Egg".
A parody entitled teh l0rd of teh Ringz0r has done the rounds of bulletin boards systems. Based on the Counter-Strike indebted "1337 speak" it retells scenes, primarily from the Peter Jackson films, in the style of a '1337 hax0r' or online gamer.
A Spanish voice-over video of Gollum debating about which is the best football (soccer) video game.
In another episode of The Simpsons, Principal Skinner announced to Springfield Elementary School that they are going to have a school medieval festival. Class bully Nelson excitedly asks, "You mean like The Lord of the Rings?!", and Skinner replies, "No! Nothing like The Lord of the Rings!" Note that readers dispute whether or not Middle-earth is medieval; the medieval look of the film trilogy is due to concept designer and book illustrator John Howe.
REC Studios' Fellowship of the Ring A parody starring four people portraying multiple characters each and condensing the first third of the story to under a quarter of an hour.
A Russified version of the film trilogy exists, featuring a voice-over translation of all 3 films. The author of the opus is a lieutenant of police by the name of Dmitri Puchkov; unsurprisingly, his "translation" re-imagines the story as one of cops and robbers, oligarchs and the FSB (ex-KGB) chasing each other through the land of Honduras (the name of that particular country has in Russian peculiar connotations of being "a very silly place off the edge of the world"). The Ring's significance is now not its inherent evil but its status as stolen property sought by its rightful (and horribly demented and criminal) owner, who raises in his native Mordovia vast Nazi-like armies (complete with German accents, courtesy of the "translator") to reclaim it. The translation infuses the films with countless Russian pop culture jokes and allusions to Soviet anecdotes, movies, books and historical personages: for example, Legolas and Gimli speak in Estonian and Georgian accents respectively; Théoden becomes Boris Yeltsin and his affliction the consequence of alcoholism; and Gandalf is а Major in the Honduras police force. "Goblin" also put together a brand new parody soundtrack for the movies, featuring dozens of songs ranging from modern pop like Tatu, Leningad and Rammstein to old Soviet Communist anthems, with some songs by revered artists like Vladimir Vysotsky and Viktor Tsoj sprinkled in. There are also some video jokes, such as the practically seamless addition of sunglasses to Lord Elrond (who, in this version, was Agent Smith in disguise) and the brief pan to gigantic statues of the South Park children done in white marble in Denethor's halls. Commonly known as "Goblin's Translation", the parody established its author as a household name in Russia.
In the MMORPG Kingdom of Loathing, there is an adventure in the Itznotyerzitz Mine that has many references to the Mine from The Fellowship of the Ring, such as "Speak "Friend," and enter" changed to "Speak,Frat Boy, and enter."
The Sprite Comic Neglected Mario Characters contains an adventure entitled "The Lord of the Wings," which is loosely based on the plot of The Lord of the Rings.
The All Saved Freak Band has an album called "For Christians, Elves, and Lovers," memorializing Tolkien's death. They have one song called "Mordor."
On albinoblacksheep.com there is a Lord of the Rings rap title "The Towers are da Playas" including Orcs and Gollum. It is made using Flash.
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