Single Ladies
by Jeff
Image text: Using a ring to bind someone you covet into your dark and twisted world? Wow, just got the subtext there. Also, the apparently eager Beyoncé would've made one badass Nazgȗl.
The song playing in this comic is "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. Which apparently had one of the best videos of all time... Anyhow, Gil-Galad was the last high king of the Noldor in Middle Earth. Galadriel was a queen of the elves in Middle Earth. Eru was the one god of Middle-Earth who created the Elves and Men, and Aule created the Dwarves, but Eru eventually approved Aule's creations. So, he sort of created the Dwarves as Eru was the only god to give a spirit to a being, as he did with the Dwarves.
The character in the beret is apparently the bartender in a bar that Sauron frequents. In the comic, Sauron upon hearing the song by Beyonce in the bar, has the idea to create his magic ring plan which presents the plot of the Lord of the Rings triology of books and movies.
March 10th, 2010
This is an aside so I will leave it as a comment, but I loved this comic. Perfect mix of LOTR nerdiness and pop culture.
March 10th, 2010
I thought it was the other way around… he’s sad because he tried to put a ring on it and couldn’t.
But then again, he wouldn’t be around to frequent a pub, would he?
March 10th, 2010
You haven’t fully explained the joke here. It’s a double whammy. First, there is the surface level joke that Sauron, the chief antagonist in Lord of the Rings, got his big idea to create a ring to bind his enemies with from Beyoncé’s song.
But the second joke comes in the image text. When he says, “wow, just got the subtext there,” he’s implying that the real, underlying message behind the Lord of the Rings series is that marriage is an evil and oppressive contract in which one spouse is “bound” to the other’s will by a ring.
March 10th, 2010
I agree. Nice work Gordon.
March 11th, 2010
I was going to type this exact same thing. It was a brilliant comic. I too never saw the underlying theme behind LotR until this comic!
March 19th, 2010
However, the subtext is a joke on it’s own – LOTR explicitly has no allegory: “As for any inner meaning or message, it has in the intention of the author, none. It is neither allegorical nor topical.” As an English scholar he wrote it to be exactly what it is – a fantastic epic.
March 10th, 2010
Do you realise what you’ve done here?
Your ‘best video of all time’ comment was a subtle joke in itself. Keep doing that and we’ll need an explainexplainxkcd to explain your jokes too.
March 11th, 2010
im pretty sure there is an explainexplainxkcd
March 12th, 2010
Oh no! What have I done! I’ve created a monster of confusion and snarkiness, instead of explaining everything!
March 15th, 2010
What about “eager Beyoncé would’ve made one badass Nazgȗl.”?