Editing Bored of the Rings (section)

== Reception ==

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|quote=&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Gandalf|Goodgulf]] sat dejectedly before the [[Doors of Durin|obstinate portal]], mumbling spells. <br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;"[[Pismo Beach, California|Pismo]]", he intoned, striking the door with his wand. "[[Bitumen]]. Lazlo. [[Clayton-Bulwer]]."<br/>Save for a hollow thud, the door made no sign of opening. <br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;"It looks grim", said [[Aragorn|Arrowroot]].<br/>&nbsp;&nbsp;Suddenly the Wizard sprang to his feet. "The knob", he cried... 
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The Tolkien scholar [[David Bratman]], writing in ''[[Mythlore]]'', quotes an extended passage from the book in which Frito, [[Spam (food)|Spam]] Gangree ([[Sam Gamgee]]), and Goddam jostle on the edge of the "Black Hole" (a [[tar pit]]), commenting "Those parodists wrought better than they knew". He explains that Tolkien, in his many drafts, came very close to "inadvertently writing the parody version of his own novel", though in the end he managed to avoid that, in Bratman's view, remarkably completely.<ref name="Bratman 2000"/>

The author [[Mike Sacks]], quoting the book's opening lines, writes that the book has had the distinction, rare for a parody, of being continuously in print for over 40 years, was one of the earliest parodies of "a modern, popular bestseller", and has inspired many pop culture writers including those who worked on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' and ''[[The Onion]]''.<ref name="Sacks 2014">{{cite book |last=Sacks |first=Mike |author-link=Mike Sacks |title=Poking a Dead Frog |date=2014 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=978-1-10161327-6 |pages=75–76}}</ref>

Leah Schnelbach, on the science fiction and fantasy site [[Tor.com]], writes that the book is full of "interesting comedic thoughts ... stuffed in under all the silliness".<ref name="Schnelbach 2018"/> In her view, it takes "an easy, marketable hook" and creates "a cutting satire of shallow consumerism and the good-old-fashioned American road trip".<ref name="Schnelbach 2018"/> She remarks, too, on the rescue of the Boggies Frito and Spam by the eagle [[Guano|Gwahno]]. The eagle "is efficient to the point of rudeness, yelling at them to fasten their seatbelts, snapping at them to use the barf bags if necessary, and complaining about running behind schedule: he's the encapsulation of everything wrong with air travel".<ref name="Schnelbach 2018"/> Schnelbach writes that after a [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]] journey through American [[kitsch]], "they end firmly in the angry, efficiency-at-all-costs Jet Age. And thus this ridiculous parody becomes a commentary on the [[Tolkien and the modernists|perils of modernism, just like ''Lord of the Rings'']] itself."<ref name="Schnelbach 2018">{{cite web |last=Schnelbach |first=Leah |title=Hitting the Road with Bored of the Rings |url=https://www.tor.com/2018/02/07/tbr-stack-reviews-the-harvard-lampoons-bored-of-the-rings/ |website=[[Tor.com]] |access-date=4 January 2022 |date=7 February 2018}}</ref>