Double “Heh!”

I do enjoy the British sense of humor – and of the ridiculous.

First, a group of architects in the Sceptred Isle have started a tongue-firmly-in-cheek crowd-funding campaign to raise £1.85 billion (about US $2.894 billion) to build a replica of Minas Tirith, the fabled city from the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ motion picture cycle.  The Telegraph reports:

If they manage to raise the sum within the 60 day limit, Tolkien fans will then have the chance to live or work in the creation, whose original version was laid siege to by the full forces of Mordor in The Return of the King.

The campaign’s leader, Jonathan Wilson, has estimated building costs of £15 million for land, £188 million for labour and £1.4 billion for materials.

Any money left over after the project is finished after 2023 will be used for “maintenance and public services” until 2053.

. . .

Rewards for those who donate to the campaign range from a follow on Twitter (£3) to being made a Lord or Lady of the city, with use of a horse-drawn carriage to transport their family (£100,000).

There’s more at the link.

Not to be outdone, a rival group immediately started their own crowdfunding campaign to raise an army of Orcs and destroy Minas Tirith all over again!

The distinctly tongue-in-cheek operation, named Destroy Minas Tirith, aims to raise £1 million in order to recreate the Orc siege of the city as shown in JRR Tolkien’s final Lord of the Rings book, The Return of the King, and made even more famous by Peter Jackson’s film.

Orcish organiser Stom Tacey, more usually known as fantasy author Tom Stacey, said that it was right to celebrate the Time of Orcs.

“As loyal servants of the Dark Lord, we cannot allow this to happen,” he wrote in a mission statement. “Join me in gnashing your teeth and stamping your feet. Your gold will buy many pointy and shiny things which we can stick the humans with.”

For anyone suitably blackhearted  enough to support the campaign, rewards are plentiful, if inevitably Orc-oriented.

For £10,000 you can be an Orc Commander (“lots of Orcses to shout at and tell what to do [no training required – orcs are very good at taking direction]”). For £100,000 you can enjoy a ride on a Nazgul Fellbeast (“token to be redeemed at Witch King’s command tent”).

Again, more at the link.

I do enjoy it when Brits go a bit barmy . . .

Peter