Last weekend Saturday Night Live did a parody on the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. Well, this weekend saw another great entertainment parody from one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
Martin Freeman AKA Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit trilogy hosted, so there were bound to be Middle Earth jokes galore. People may not remember Freeman from the original UK version of The Office where he played Tim Canterbury (John Krasinski’s Jim Halpert for US fans). SNL combined these two franchises for a truly hilarious sketch.
In this five minute parody, Freeman plays Bilbo working at a paper company after his adventures through Middle Earth. Bobby Moynihan is Gandalf as the David Brent/Michael Scott character, doing an excellent Ricky Gervais impression, complete with all the inappropriate jokes and dancing. Kate McKinnon is briefly seen as Tauriel in the Dawn Tinsley/Pam Beesly role.
However, it’s Taran Killam as Gollum who absolutely steals the piece. Gollum here is the Gareth Keenan/Dwight Schrute character, complete with a brilliant rapport with Freeman’s Bilbo much like it is in the two versions of the show. Bilbo pranks Gollum by putting the Ring in a thing of jello, then Bilbo and Tauriel prank him together.
It’s slightly astonishing how well this crossover worked, with the writing and performances really coming together for audiences everywhere to enjoy. This was definitely a highlight to Saturday Night Live’s 40th season. It’s a fun piece for the farewell of Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth which will come to an end this week with the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on Wednesday.
Did you find this parody as hilarious as we did? Let us know in the comments!
