It might have gotten a chuckle the first two or three times, but it went on throughout the book, and quickly became tiresome. 'After a hasty meal of frankincense and myrrh', 'The company arose and, after a hurried breakfast of yaws and goiters', 'an austere breakfast of eggs, waffles, bacon grapefruit, pancakes, hot oatmeal, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and goden cheese blintzes', 'a frugal breakfast of loaves and fishes', 'after a leisurely meal of apple cheeks and cauliflower ears', and more. Then there are the endless references to the meals that the adventurers make along the way. It might have been amusing at first, but it went on for 160 pages.

Example: 'A Elbereth! Gilthoniel' in Bored of the Rings comes out as 'A unicef clearasil'. The songs or poems from the original source material were especially laden with these, and the occasional bit of song or verse that Tolkien had rendered in one of his constructed languages (i.e., Quenya, Sindarin or the Black Speech of Mordor) were generally just strings of old brand-names. The names of places and characters from LOTR were parodied by long-defunct brand-names that sounded similar. I was also annoyed the same gags being constantly repeated.

What I found is that the humor was crude and forced. Interestingly, I did not find it nearly as entertaining as I had remembered. Recently, I was given a copy as a gift on the occasion of the 68th birthday, and so had occasion to re-read it.

At the time, I thought it was marvelously witty. I believe that when I first encountered this book, it was about the time it was first published, in my mid-teens.

Harvard lampoon bored of the rings