If it wasn’t clear from Polygon’s 52-week Year of the Ring Deep Dive, December 19, 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Peter Jacksons’ theatrical release The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. While a lot has changed in the film industry and in the world, one thing has remained stable and true during this time: Stephen Colbert’s love for all that is Lord of the Rings.
Wednesdays Late show, Colbert was able to use his longtime fandom to organize some sort of cast reunion, and more. Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Method Man, Killer Mike and Anna Kendrick all showed up in a rap homage to the franchise.
While “57 year old talk show host rapping” may sound a bit scared, the song only really starts to boil once the microphone is passed to Method Man and Killer Mike. And when the elven rap starts, it rises to another level.
Dissent for other franchises comes hot and heavy, with killer Mike pursuing Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy as “capitalist propaganda” and Anna Kendrick hurling insults after insults for Pitch Perfect and Twilight, although she protests that she rarely appears in these films.
Colbert’s love for the Shire, Rohan, Gondor and all the other wonderful places in Middle-earth is no longer a secret at this point. It was never really for Colbert heads, either. Back in 2006, when Colbert was still known for his snappy character of the same name The Colbert Report, one New York Magazine profile noticed “a few distinctive decorative details” in his office, like a pinball game of the Lord of the Rings.
In fact, the writer notes that one difficulty in trying to catch a star with a rabid fan base like Colbert at the time is getting to highlight things like the fact that he’s a huge Lord of the Rings Nerd and has a heavy picture book on his desk with the title A Tolkien bestiary, about half of readers will think Hmm interesting while the other half thinks Yes! Yes! Sure! Colbert is a Tolkien crazy! “
The news soon spread. Weekly entertainment took a series of photos of Colbert in Middle-earth robes, who disguised himself as Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins and Legolas in New York City.
On the report, Guests like James Franco began challenging Colbert to “Tolkien-offs” and losing badly. It was a tradition that continued when Colbert moved on The late show, from a former HQ trivia host Scott Rogowski to the Hobbit trilogy Starring Lee Pace trying to greet Colbert in one of Tolkien’s languages. When Pace struggled, Colbert not only corrected him, but found he was trying a language his character – Thranduil, son of Oropher, the Elf King, would not normally speak. Pace sank into his seat in shock.
Colbert earned a cameo for blinking and missing-it Smaug’s wasteland, but perhaps his public excitement peaked in 2015 when a Turkish doctor named Bilgin Ciftci was arrested by his government for posting pictures comparing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Gollum. Arrested for violating a law that censures anyone who “publicly denigrates state officials, government and judicial authorities,” Cifti had a novel defense: Gollum was no villain. The court actually thought of Sméagol.
This was a chance for Tolkien experts around the world to prove their worth, and Colbert stepped in and went all out on Atticus Finch while he was off. quoted The Silmarillion. Finally, after his lawyers repeatedly watched the films to support his claims and after a panel of Turkish experts explained Gollum “Not angry,” Cifti was acquitted.
Colbert’s obsession is also a mutual love affair. In 2019, he tried Peter Jackson for a spin-off for his cameo character Lake-town Spy as Darrlygorn, Aragorn’s fairer brother. When Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd, aka Merry and Pippin, showed up The late show To include their new podcast, they asked Colbert two quiz questions to amaze him. When Boyd’s question about the Ents actually remained a space for Colbert, a recorded message came from Jackson: “We have to answer the question, who knows Merry and Pippin better: Merry and Pippin or Stephen Colbert?”
Colbert won.
