The Lord of the Rings is awesome. The books are amazing, some of us rewatch the movies at least a couple of times each year [wink, wink, nudge, nudge], and we can’t wait for The Silmarillion trilogy! LotR has given us plenty of material for online jokes over the years, but have you ever wondered what would happen if you combined it with The Onion’s satirical headlines?
Well, instead of wondering, Twitter user Lauren mixed the two together and got something unexpectedly hilarious. Bored Panda spoke to Lauren about her project. She told us that she was casually scrolling through memes, saw one of The Onion’s headlines, and thought it was the perfect combo for some of her fave LotR characters.
“I’ve been staying inside since I was laid off and it’s important to make sure we’re helping out our fellow Americans by staying home when we can, so I’ve watched the movies recently and I’ve been reading the books, so it was fresh in my mind,” Lauren told Bored Panda. Scroll down for the rest of our interview with her and let us know in the comments which pics you liked the most and why.
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
She revealed that after making one LotR-Onion meme, she kept finding more “perfect” headlines and ended posting all of them. Lauren admitted that she thought that probably only 3 other people would find them funny. “I had no idea so many people would see and enjoy them, but I’m just glad I could bring people a laugh!”
Lauren’s thread went viral and got more than 105.5k likes, a massive 25.6k retweets, and made plenty of LotR fans smile (and maybe realize that it’s time for another Middle Earth movie marathon).
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
We were interested to know who her favorite LotR character was. She said that she adores all of the characters and thinks that they’re wonderful, endearing, and human (even the Elves and the Dwarves). However, she said that if she had to pick just one, she’d go with Samwise Gamgee.
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
“We all need a friend like Sam, and we should all aspire to be friends like Sam! He’s just as much the hero as Frodo and cares so much about his home and his friends. Also, I always felt like his words of encouragement are some of my favorite lines in any piece of fiction,” she explained why she likes Sam as a character so much.
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Lauren said that she’s looking forward to The Silmarillion movies and thinks that J.R.R.Tolkien’s works are “truly a great escape to such an intricately built world.” She added: “Every new movie is a great way to go back to those classic books!”
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
We also wanted to know Lauren’s opinion on why there are people who think that The Onion’s headlines are real. According to her, reality feels just as outrageous as satire these days which makes the distinction between fact and fiction hard.
“Satire has always been a great way to raise awareness about what’s going on in the world, and a great way to challenge various views. In times like these, I think that is more important than ever. Reality can be an overwhelmingly difficult place sometimes, so escaping into a good work of fiction or a funny piece of satire can be really important.”
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Lauren added that she’s genuinely happy that her “mediocre Photoshop skills and LotR marathoning” were so relatable and brought smiles to so many people’s faces. “So many people responded with amazing creations of their own, and it was really exciting to see so many people come together over something so fun in a time when we all feel so far apart.”
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
Image credits: laurbarbq
If you’re unfamiliar with The Onion, it’s a satirical website that puts hilarious spins on local and international news, as well as world events. Its headlines are so out there that nobody should mix it up with real news.
And yet, plenty of people still mix up satire with real facts because they forget to check the source. Like the time that The Onion named Kim Jong-Un its “sexiest man alive” in 2012 and the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper The People’s Daily cited the article as a source. Or that other time when the Fox Nation website thought that The Onion’s satirical report about Barack Obama supposedly sending Americans a 75k-word email to vent his frustrations was genuine.
Lauren inspired others to come up with their own LotR and The Onion’s headline mashups
Image credits: andthehoneybees
Image credits: andthehoneybees
Image credits: andthehoneybees
Image credits: andthehoneybees
Image credits: dbrewer8318
Image credits: andthehoneybees
Image credits: kruciff
Image credits: MisterBrainley
Image credits: leentorens
Image credits: qwrrty
Image credits: codemarvelous
Image credits: codemarvelous
Image credits: gluemoncro
Image credits: History4Life92
Image credits: Popehat
Image credits: SongsForHorses
Image credits: GruulMageBeast
Image credits: CFaits
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