I didn’t assume it was nonetheless attainable, however Twitter simply served up my favourite crossover of the yr: Lord of the Rings Moneyball. You see, you’re taking the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy after which speak about it utilizing Moneyball quotes. It’s easy, silly, and so satisfying I can’t consider no person considered it earlier than.
The top of yr vacation season is a time when many people take day off, hang around with family members, and inexplicably try to observe your complete Lord of the Rings Prolonged Version for the sixth time. The Peter Jackson fantasy adaptation’s epic 11-hour-and-36-minute runtime gives loads of time for respite and reflection, letting us ponder all the pieces from the thousands and thousands of cumulative life decisions that introduced us thus far, to gaming out each which approach we might need tried to defeat Lord Sauron had we been gamers of consequence within the twilight of Center-Earth’s third age.
All of which is to say that the pump was maybe primed for a historic LotR mashup when Defector cofounder and former Deadspin editor Tom Ley tweeted on Christmas day, “Saruman seeing that Elrond spent 4 Fellowship roster spots on hobbits,” alongside a screenshot of a bunch of TikTok feedback like “WHO LET THIS MAN COOK” and “WHAT IS HE TALKING ABT.” Person HeylKatme quote-tweeted Ley’s submit with the poster for Moneyball and the phrases “Elrond placing collectively the Fellowship roster” and a healthful new meme, aka the 2023 equal of a dad joke, was born.
I didn’t assume good issues have been nonetheless attainable on Twitter, in any other case often called the Elon Musk Graveyard for Posters. 2023 was the yr the social media platform, as soon as a intelligent, inventive hive thoughts of internet-pilled individuals riffing on the musings of random strangers like a large coked-up fever dream, unequivocally died. The get together’s over. The advertisers have all left. These too sick or drained to go house are the one ones left. And but by some means, even within the smoldering ruins of a as soon as particular although by no means fairly nice on-line society, Lord of the Rings Moneyball was born:
It helps for those who’ve seen each The Lord of the Rings and Moneyball, the sports activities biopic zapped with Aaron Sorkin screenplay quips and based mostly on the 2003 Michael Lewis guide about an an underdog baseball staff utilizing sabermetrics to beat its better-funded rivals. But it surely’s sufficient simply to be conversant in them, and the way in which your common fantasy league participant these days usually talks about their draft as in the event that they too are utilizing arcane statistical strategies to mount an unlikely however nonetheless pressing marketing campaign towards the very armies of darkness incarnate.
And for those who do wish to higher acquaint your self with the supply materials behind Twitter’s final gasp of whimsical humor, The Lord of the Rings is streaming on HBO Max and Moneyball is obtainable to observe without spending a dime with adverts on YouTube.