Comedy Ain't Funny Anymore

There's now a parody of the Silmarillion called The Sillymarillion: An Unauthorized Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's Classic The Silmarillion.

I guess it's impressive that the Lord of the Rings movies were so successful that people are even parodying the Silmarillion, but honestly, this might be too obscure. I made it through the Silmarillion once (...once!) and I don't think all that many people are out there clamoring for a parody.

Especially because a quick flip-through revealed that it makes Bored of the Rings look like Oscar Wilde.

Meanwhile, Henry Beard (who was one of the Lampoon writers that did Bored of the Rings as well as writing some neat books of handy Latin phrases) has written The Dick Cheney Code, which appears to be a parody of The Da Vinci Code. At least it's parodying two things at once, which suggests it's a higher degree of difficulty.

The parody book I really don't understand is The McAtrix Derided, which is a parody of the Matrix. Except that it's a book, and the Matrix was a movie. I mean, say what you want about the Sillymarillion (for example, "That name is the lamest excuse for a pun ever concocted) but at least it's a book parodying a book, you know? I don't think reading a book that's a wacky version of an action movie makes sense. Especially since the movie has been ruthlessly parodied many times. Let's face it, if you're taking on a target that has already been cut down to size on an MTV Awards Show, you're probably coming late to the party.

Incidentally, the book description on Amazon says "Hot on the Heels of Bored of the Rings comes an indispensable parody..." Hot on the heels of a book written in 1969?

I think what they mean is that The McAtrix is hot on the heels of The Soddit, a parody of The Hobbit (brilliant! However did you come up with that?) written by the same guy. Truly, we live in the golden age of toothless parodies of inoffensive stories.