The world of magic and mystery created by Professor JRR Tolkien has always inspired people to create new things. From Game of Thrones and Harry Potter to Led Zeppelin and Star Wars, without the genius of Lord of the Rings we would be missing out on so many great films, TV shows, songs and literature.
But Tolkien’s world doesn’t just inspire amazing art: its lore also inspires a huge number of memes and jokes, which is how pages like The Rings Of Power Memes Club are born. Here, we’ve handpicked some of the best memes from the page for you to enjoy over your second breakfast.
Bored Panda got in touch with the creator of the group, Aman Verma, who was kind enough to have a short chat with us which you can check out below.
We also reached out to Tolkien scholar Nick Polk, Editor-in-Chief of the Tolkien Society’s scholarly journal Malone and founder of Tolkien Pop! Substack. Nick graciously agreed to speak with us in more detail about meme-ification of The Lord of the Rings and the role of humor in Tolkien’s world. Read our conversation below.
More info: Nick Polk | Tolkien Pop! | X | Instagram | Mallorn
The Rings Of Power Memes Club currently has 54,000 Tolkien enthusiasts who visit the page daily for LOTR meme content. Creator Aman Verma says the page is a personal project. He says the appeal of the LOTR universe goes beyond childhood nostalgia for kids of the 2000s; many people have a real emotional connection to the series.
Verma told Bored Panda that he decided to create a Lord of the Rings meme page because he wanted to keep the series’ legacy alive online, and to promote “The Rings of Power,” which is currently streaming on Amazon. Verma said it will probably take time for longtime fans to embrace the show, and he’s excited about season two and the recently announced “The Hunt for Gollum.”
The world that JRR Tolkien created is so vast and complex that scholars have dedicated their lives to exploring it. One such avid fan is Nick Polk, creator of the Tolkien Pop! Substack and editor of the Tolkien Society’s scholarly journal, Mallorn. Nick says he became a LOTR fan in the late 1990s when he watched the animated version of The Hobbit at his grandmother’s house.
“I watched it as a child and loved it. I had no idea it was connected to the wider world, or that J.R.R. Tolkien even existed. In primary school, I even coloured in a picture of a leprechaun, named him Dwalin and grew a blue beard!”
“Fast forward to the release of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, my family and I became obsessed with the movies and watched The Return of the King together at the cinema. From there, I played the associated video games and watched the films over and over again.”
When Nick grew up and began studying at university, Tolkien suddenly came back into his life: “I was advised by one of my professors to read any book I wanted to read in addition to my schoolwork. I chose The Hobbit and soon afterwards read The Lord of the Rings books for the first time. I devoured them, discovered The Silmarillion and the Tolkien Society, and have been a Tolkien fanatic ever since.”
On Substack Tolkien Pop!, Nick writes about the intersection of pop culture and Tolkien, “whether that’s Tolkien’s own influence on various intellectual property, or comparative analysis of themes in Tolkien’s writings with those in other media,” he explains.
One thing about Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings trilogy is that even non-fans know the memes. How many times has a picture of Boromir with the line “Men do not simply…” been used for something that has nothing to do with Tolkien at all?
Or the iconic viral song, “They’ll Take The Hobbits to Isengard”? Polk argues that the song’s widespread acceptance could be due to two factors: the trilogy’s iconic status among kids of the 2000s, and the fact that the films are packed with great one-liners.
“I’ve heard many TV critics and fans refer to The Lord of the Rings series as the Star Wars of the 2000s, and I agree with those who use this analogy,” Polk explains. “The Lord of the Rings series has been hugely culturally influential, and like Darth Vader’s line in The Empire Strikes Back, ‘No, I’m your father!’, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from – you know that line, you know who said it, and you know what universe it takes place in. [in]My wife doesn’t like fantasy, but even she knows the fan-favorite meme, “Potatoes! Boil them, mash them, put them in a stew.”
Nick also thinks the reason Lord of the Rings memes are so prevalent is because there are so many catchy one-liners: “The ‘Not Just a Meme’ meme is one of the original internet memes that inspired the memes we know today. Let me just name a few that I can think of that most, if not all, movie fans know: ‘Meat’s back on the menu!’, ‘Yo, keep that secret!’, ‘Do they sell it by the pint?’, and ‘It still counts as one!'”
Nick says that many of these are funny in the context of the film, but are also relatable enough to make people laugh in the real world.
Nick says that like many fandoms, The Lord of the Rings brings people together: “Fans share artwork, theories and deeper insights into the stories. Memes are an extension of this fan activity.” He argues that creating memes is one of the easiest ways for fans to express their creativity.
“Technology has made it easier to access scenes from movies and TV and create memes like collages. TikTok and Instagram Reels have also made it as easy as possible to create video memes, filling a gap that made it difficult for the average person to create photos and videos.”
For Nick, it’s all about bringing communities together – and funny memes can do that: “The Tolkien world has been a catalyst for other people to share other things that they enjoy,” he explains.
“Sharing humor and laughter fosters relationships, and creating and sharing memes inspires people to come up with familiar new ways to share jokes made from the secondary world memes they so dearly love.”
Some people think that there isn’t much humor in Tolkien’s work, or that Professor Tolkien didn’t have much of a sense of humor. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. His humor may have been on the dry side, but Tolkien loved to laugh. Nick quotes Tolkien biographer Humphrey Carpenter: “He was [Tolkien] He could laugh at anyone, but he was most inclined to laugh at himself, and, having no sense of dignity whatsoever, he often behaved like a rowdy schoolboy.”
“Humor and laughter were very important to Tolkien,” says Tolkien scholar Nick Polk, “and we can honour his memory by making memes and not taking ourselves or Middle-earth too seriously. So to all who make memes and enjoy memes, I plead: ‘Fly away, idiots!'”
