I liked Aragorn before he was king.

July 3, 2011 2:31 PM

The Broship of the Ring -- The Lord of the Rings envisioned as a buddy/road trip hipster epic. From illustrator Noelle Stevenson.
posted by seanmpuckett (69 comments total)

I like the reimagining of Boromir as "Broromir." Other than that, I don't find this very appealing.
posted by grouse at 2:38 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I like the hipster fixie-riding Nazgul.

Although they owe a little of that imagery to South Park's LotR episode.
posted by TheRedArmy at 2:51 PM on July 3, 2011

I wasn't sold until i saw yuppie-scooter Legolas.

I am now sold.
posted by The Whelk at 2:58 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is cute and fun.
posted by hippybear at 3:02 PM on July 3, 2011

Gimli not liking scooters was what took me from amused to laughing really hard.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 3:11 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

The bromance of Sam and Frodo is one of the great bromances in literature. I love media that transposes an epic/religious tale on mundane life. This, the South Park LOTR ep, Ulysses, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Matt Wagner's Mage... is there a name for this style?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 3:16 PM on July 3, 2011

Mock Epic?
posted by The Whelk at 3:25 PM on July 3, 2011

Didn't really do it for me — some of those Middle Earth hipsters look a little too unironically preppy — but if Wes Anderson made an adaptation of LOTR with Owen Wilson as Legolas and Zach Galifianakis as Gimli, I'd buy tickets to see it twice.
posted by Strange Interlude at 3:36 PM on July 3, 2011 [16 favorites]

HE’S COMING TO GET YOU

ON HIS FIXIE
posted by JHarris at 3:39 PM on July 3, 2011

YOU
SHALL
NOT
CHILL
posted by The Whelk at 3:41 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

if Wes Anderson made an adaptation of LOTR with Owen Wilson as Legolas and Zach Galifianakis as Gimli, I'd buy tickets to see it twice.

Holy shit, you totally need a job in Hollywood. This concept is pure gold.

Maybe it's kind of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead take on LOTR, with two of the side characters taking center stage for the duration.
posted by hippybear at 3:45 PM on July 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

Bros aren't hipsters. Bros are anti-hipsters, embodying everything mainstream. They will grow up and take over their dad's development companies and become your boss at your future crappy job and nobody will mention how they used to get drunk and go on "Go fuck shit up" missions in college.

Also, can we please have a moratorium on the word "hipster"? It's a term used by the conservative mainstream to limit and oppress the counterculture, just the same way square America called people "hippies" back in the '60s, even though they would never call themselves that. It pisses me off the same way it does when I hear "nigger", "granola" and "fag". Let's not fucking do that.
posted by dunkadunc at 3:46 PM on July 3, 2011 [8 favorites]

dunkadunc: One the one hand: granted.

On the other hand: maybe you're overthinking this.
posted by JHarris at 3:48 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

just the same way square America called people "hippies" back in the '60s, even though they would never call themselves that.

Chet Helms used the word hippie back then and for a long time afterwards. I figure if anyone would know who was hip and who wasn't, it would be him.
posted by hippybear at 3:54 PM on July 3, 2011

Come on now, Hobbits with a French press? Who could resist that. Or this: "Arwen works at the Rivendell Fair-Trade Coffee Shop because of course she does."

Also, for the record, every one of my hipster bros uses the word bro with so much irony it's gone all the way back around again and is actually sincere. What are we? We're bros.
posted by hototogisu at 4:04 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

It pisses me off the same way it does when I hear "nigger"... and "fag"

Bro, I was mostly with you until this part.
posted by naju at 4:09 PM on July 3, 2011 [14 favorites]

Frodo looks like his uncle as played by Martin Freeman.
posted by immlass at 4:09 PM on July 3, 2011

Also, can we please have a moratorium on the word "hipster"? It's a term used by the conservative mainstream to limit and oppress the counterculture, just the same way square America called people "hippies" back in the '60s, even though they would never call themselves that. It pisses me off the same way it does when I hear "nigger", "granola" and "fag". Let's not fucking do that.

No, its not. Hipsters use 'hipster' to insult other hipsters. Its an in-group term. My friends and I sit around in tight jeans listening to indie and complain about hipsters. Nobody's 'oppressing' people with enough leisure time and taste to care that much about fashion and irony. It was originally used in the 50s to make fun of people who pretended to be hip, but weren't - which might also fit.

This blog does get that hipsters don't just hang out with other hipsters, and I look forward to seeing more dwarves as every hipster's token metalhead friend.

The one thing this blog is missing so far are 'tribal hipsters' - the MGMT/Empire of the Sun/Jinja Safari types, who combine hipster and hippie fashion. Or are they only a Sydney thing? They seem like they'd fit in well with LOTR.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:29 PM on July 3, 2011

I've seen Empire Of The Sun several times, and can't imagine anything about that movie which would inspire the youth of today to anything tribal.
posted by hippybear at 4:38 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm talking about the Australian electro band who are inexplicably popular overseas (and spun off of an Aussie George Harrison style group). They sound like MGMT.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:48 PM on July 3, 2011

I mean, it did launch the career of the most popular Batman, so that's worth something, I suppose.
posted by hippybear at 4:52 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I could not understand these cartoons. Does this mean I am officially over the hill?
posted by KokuRyu at 5:20 PM on July 3, 2011

Or you don't live around the right hills. These hills 'round here, they're filled with characters like this. Or at least, characters who appear to fit such a bill. Maybe it's being in a college town, or being part of a college radio station.

Anyway, how can you not like Legolas and Gimli on a Vespa? Adorable.
posted by filthy light thief at 5:26 PM on July 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ooh, so Empire of the Sun are a "tribal" hipster band. I understand (a bit more) now
posted by filthy light thief at 5:27 PM on July 3, 2011

The thing that sold it for me was Saruman. I was grinning like a fool after that. So nattily dressed. I hate him.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:45 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Gandalf is my favorite. I totally know that guy.
posted by jnrussell at 5:48 PM on July 3, 2011

Gandalf is my favorite. I totally know that guy.

Give me a few months to grow out my hair and beard, and I could BE that guy.
posted by hippybear at 6:12 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nothing will ever be able to top "Bored of the Rings", though.

As Goodgulf stepped onto the bridge the passage echoed with an ominous
_dribble, dribble_, and a great crowd of narcs burst forth. In their midst was
a towering dark shadow too terrible to describe. In its hand it held a huge
black globe and on its chest was written in cruel runes, "Villanova."

"Aiyee," shouted Legolam. "A ballhog!"

Goodgulf turned to face the dread shadow, and as he did, it slowly
circled toward the bridge, bouncing the grim sphere as it came. The Wizard
reeled back and, clutching at the ropes, raised his wand. "Back, vile
hoopster," he cried.
posted by insulglass at 6:15 PM on July 3, 2011 [4 favorites]

Well call 'em what you want but they have destroyed Brooklyn. Working families are being forced from their homes by sky rocketing increases to the cost of living in Brooklyn.

I encourage everyone who does not want to see children uprooted for more cute little brunch places to Boycott Brooklyn!
posted by Ad hominem at 7:50 PM on July 3, 2011

Working families are being forced from their homes by sky rocketing increases to the cost of living in Brooklyn.

You're blaming that on Williamsburg hipsters?

Have you paid any attention to anything else going on in the country lately? Because if you haven't, I have news for you -- inflation, especially food prices and gasoline, is running rampant everywhere.

Anyway, the children need to learn to like brunch, not flee it.
posted by hippybear at 7:56 PM on July 3, 2011

Yes I a blaming working families being forced or of Williamsburg,Bushwick, Caroll Gardens and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn on hipsters. Four working recent college grads can pay more rent than a single mom with two kids to feed. Two kids who provide no income and need space. Hipsters price people out of the neighborhood, it is as simple as that.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:03 PM on July 3, 2011

Single college grads (or dropouts) who work need places to live too. I'm not sure why we're always left out of these discussions or sidelined in favor of 'working families' but there's no reason why we shouldn't have the same housing as other people. We work, we eat, we pay taxes, and we give lots of money to the local economy.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:07 PM on July 3, 2011 [4 favorites]

This version of Gandalf? He lives in my town and teaches history at the university. Looks just like him.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:08 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

(Ad hominem's link nsfw, I think. didn't watch past the first bit. Be warned.)
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 8:10 PM on July 3, 2011

Not really NSFW, the 20 seconds are vaguely NSFW. It is on YouTube after all, there is no nudity.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:13 PM on July 3, 2011

Next there will be complaints about all the Double-Income-No-Kids gay couples who move into various neighborhoods. How dare they!?!?
posted by hippybear at 8:13 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Do DINKs blast music all hours of the night, do they brawl in the streets, do outbid multiple generation businesses for space to open more bars. Sorry, but New York is for New Yorkers, including Gay Couples, who aren't going to treat a neighborood, with an existing culture, as a bedsit and 24/7 party zone.
posted by Ad hominem at 8:20 PM on July 3, 2011

Sorry, but New York whereever I'm talking about is for New Yorkers approved lifestyle types only, including Gay Couples, who aren't going to treat a neighborood, with an existing culture, as a bedsit and 24/7 party zone place in which they are living and paying rent and should be able to bring in their own culture.

And actually, yes. Gay ghettos end up with a lot of bars and loud music and shops with window displays which are inappropriate for children to walk past.

I'm not saying that brawling in the streets and such is necessarily a good idea, but that whole "we're here, now shut the door behind us so nobody else can enter" mentality about places in which people live is old and tiresome and goes back to when Mame Dennis established her home for pregnant jewish girls in the very upstanding neighborhood which was trying to keep certain types out.

I'm sorry to hear that there is a demographic shift going on in places you care about, but the way you're expressing your outrage is treading on my toes and making me feel bad. Well, making me feel bad for you and your sense of privilege which seeks to keep out the people you find worthy of your disapproval.

I appreciate who you are, generally, but your side of this particular conversation is striking me as ugly.

I'll refrain from commenting again. I think we both understand where each of us is coming from now.
posted by hippybear at 8:29 PM on July 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

Really? You are trying to equate my disapproval of "hipsters" with some sort of bigotry? That takes the cake, next thing you know someone will start accusing me of bigotry because I also disapprove of high-rise condo development in Hell's Kitchen, those poor rich folks, they deserve a fair shake for once!
posted by Ad hominem at 8:39 PM on July 3, 2011

I dunno about all this over-the-top social commentary, but hey, kinda funny concept! And nice colors and line work. But can we please stop this cutesy bendy-armed, bow-legged drawing style? Dear illustrator, why would you want to look like 90% of every other 20-something illustrator-animator working today? Why would you want to inflict that worn-out, played out, stale-as-breadcrumbs style on us all? It ranks with pop-up ads for sheer originality.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 8:41 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Anyway, I am going to drop it. But I don't appreciate your accusations about my privilege, I grew up there and was forced farther and farther into Brooklyn until my mother was commuting over an hour each way just to pay rent. But poor families being displaced is progress right?
posted by Ad hominem at 8:46 PM on July 3, 2011

And actually, yes. Gay ghettos end up with a lot of bars and loud music and shops with window displays which are inappropriate for children to walk past.

I'm not a demographer or an ethnographer, but wasn't there an article about how the gay scene and the general creative scene both help make areas better and attract tourists and investment? There's a pretty big overlap between the two groups.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:53 PM on July 3, 2011

Metafilter really has it's head ip it's ass. It takes some kind of crazy twisted logic to equate hipsters moving into Williamsburg with Jews, an oppressed minority, moving into restricted neighborhoods. Torurists and investments? What the fuck does that matter to the families who have been there for generations now having to move.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:03 PM on July 3, 2011

Officially, there's a category of bros that are jerks, but brolove and broship can be shared between non-jerky dudes, and somehow that renders them brolike, but in a non-jerky way, as we see here.

Also I love her X-Men First Class comics.
posted by redsparkler at 9:04 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Jesus. I still thought Ad hominem was kidding, like, five replies in.

I think we can all agree that cultural homogeneity is unhealthy for a neighbourhood or for a city, but, hey, guess what? I still see a variety of cultures thriving in and around Williamsburg, and they all do it while weaving in and out of each others' lives like a dance. It keeps the streets busy at all hours, the shops engaged, and the homes maintained.

It's healthy. It's not perfect, and the balance could tip one way or the other at any moment, but at the moment it's healthy.

Rents are skyrocketing in Brooklyn because it's goddamned New York, not because some kids in day-glo orange are dancing and offending you.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 9:05 PM on July 3, 2011 [4 favorites]

Ad hominem:

I'm poor and I live in Bushwick. I live here because it's affordable and there are things I'm interested going on here. It has a vibrant community and is very much a family neighborhood. I don't want to dig in and turn it into a place that's expensive as fuck with the same bullshit businesses crowding the corners — if I did, I wouldn't be able to live here. I probably wouldn't want to.

Williamsburg has been becoming what it is today for well over two decades. The fashion/scene there is definitely of the hipster variety, but the people who own a lot of the buildings there are Polish or Hasidic. Do you blame them for who they rent to? The prices—both residential and commercial—are extremely high, no doubt. I've lived there before and it's definitely a very convenient spot. There's also a lot of fun to be had. But honestly, what you hate about Williamsburg are rich kids/people — it's just that these ones in particular tend to dress like hipsters.

If you saw me and my friends, you'd probably label us hipsters. We don't have money. We're just trying to get by. We appreciate the diversity of our neighborhood and don't want to "ruin" it. So we're not the pieces of shit you'd probably assume we are. Do you normally always make snap judgements about human beings' values based on the way they dress?

If you saw someone that didn't dress like a hipster in a former middle class neighborhood, like say Park Slope or Cobble Hill, would you consider them some asshole that pushed everyone out? Would the answer be no because that happened a little earlier? What about most neighborhoods in Manhattan? Is it the gentrification, skyrocketing property values, or something as trivial as fucking fashion sensibilities that bothers you?
posted by defenestration at 9:06 PM on July 3, 2011 [4 favorites]

...and there are things I'm interested *in* going on here...


And yeah, tapesonthefloor, I thought he was kidding at first too.
posted by defenestration at 9:08 PM on July 3, 2011

I do understand how frustrating it might be to live in and raise family after family in a home only to have it suddenly become unaffordable due to circumstances beyond one's control. I don't, though, see how this couldn't have been foreseen by even the most navel-gazing of working-class families given the view of, y'know, the capital of humanity across the river.

It was just so completely unavoidable that Brooklyn would going through a period of pricing out anyone but middle-class suburban transplants. It's not really anyone's fault. In fact, it's an indication of a healthy metropolis.

Also: is this even considered a derail? What the hell was this post about again?
posted by tapesonthefloor at 9:19 PM on July 3, 2011

Also: is this even considered a derail? What the hell was this post about again?

Cute artwork that transposed Lord of the Ring's mythic fantasy onto what is for some of us day to day life and for others an invasion more terrifying than all the hordes of Mordor.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:29 PM on July 3, 2011

EDIT: If you saw someone that didn't dress like a hipster in a former middle class working class neighborhood, like say Park Slope or Cobble Hill, would you consider them some asshole that pushed everyone out?

(That's what I meant to write.)
posted by defenestration at 9:30 PM on July 3, 2011

Cute artwork that transposed Lord of the Ring's mythic fantasy onto what is for some of us day to day life and for others an invasion more terrifying than all the hordes of Mordor.

Gotcha. Not a derail in the slightest! ;)
posted by tapesonthefloor at 9:32 PM on July 3, 2011

Here on the west coast, I have a Googler friend who lives in the Mission District, a block away from the projects. So, feel free to chime in on your non-NYC gentrification stories, everybody.
posted by Apocryphon at 9:37 PM on July 3, 2011

I think the yuppies are starting to push the hipsters out of Newtown and the rest of the Inner West in Sydney, which is a shame.

Apocryphon, is that where Mission Hill is set?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:41 PM on July 3, 2011

And I thought it was a really cute link, but it seems like MeFites will use any excuse to complain about things.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:42 PM on July 3, 2011

Unfortunately not. "The official website states Mission Hill is a mix of Silver Lake in Los Angeles, Wicker Park in Chicago, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The exact location of Cosmopolis has never been revealed, as it is a mix of East and West Coast cities." So not S.F., apparently.

To tie this back to the topic: Hipsters are like Saruman's orcish hordes chopping down the primeval forests of low-cost housing for lower income families. They also tend to have excessive facial hair, just like wizards.
posted by Apocryphon at 9:45 PM on July 3, 2011

To tie this back to the topic: Hipsters are like Saruman's orcish hordes chopping down the primeval forests of low-cost housing for lower income families. They also tend to have excessive facial hair, just like wizards.

I'm kinda working on something like this. Maybe hipsters' ironic disdain could work like a Shield or a Reflect spell?
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:49 PM on July 3, 2011

Whatever I casted firestorm before it was cool.
posted by The Whelk at 9:50 PM on July 3, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bedtime. If this morphs into a big MeFi theatre production while I'm asleep, I call sensitive photographer Faramir. *sweeps hair from forehead*
posted by tapesonthefloor at 9:55 PM on July 3, 2011

Bahaha, holy shit. Okay, it's a cardigan instead of a vest, but compare this with that. That's incidentally the most recent photo in my stream.
posted by tapesonthefloor at 9:59 PM on July 3, 2011

My parents wanted me to go into law, but I really feel like more if a wizard.
posted by The Whelk at 10:03 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just realized that's almost the premise of Ugly Americans.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:10 PM on July 3, 2011

I dunno if this derail is going to last, but I am legitimately curious about where young people are supposed to live (as someone who currently lives in the Mission and has previously lived in "hipster" neighborhoods in other cities). The two main criteria I look for in housing are affordability and proximity to my work (a somewhat distant third is stuff to do in the neighborhood - restaurants, bars, etc.). I am rich in the sense that I grew up with money and I will have money again someday way down the line, but neither of these things has any bearing on my current economic situation, which is that I work in the nonprofit world, politics, and other fields that don't pay super well. So, living somewhere fancy is right out. But I do feel a lot of discomfort when I see neighborhoods changing around me - I don't mean to be part of a process that is screwing families that have lived somewhere for decades, but I'm aware that I am. What should I (and the numerous young people in similar situations) be doing?
posted by naoko at 10:38 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

But also I am confused by the conflation of hipsters and bros here, and additionally I would like to note that these look a lot more like Adidas slides than Tevas, and also it's spelled Tevas, not Teevas.
posted by naoko at 10:43 PM on July 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm not clear on what the actual jokes in this are, but I'm inferring that this is that sort of recognition humor that isn't actually humor but rather recognition, and in this case the recognizable property fact that everyone in it is wearing clothes of some kind. Am I close?
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:57 PM on July 3, 2011

(er, "the recognizable property is the fact")
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:58 PM on July 3, 2011

Randall Graves, where are you?
posted by jonmc at 7:14 AM on July 4, 2011

Randall Graves, where are you?

Please tell me you aren't an XKCD fan.

I'm not clear on what the actual jokes in this are, but I'm inferring that this is that sort of recognition humor that isn't actually humor but rather recognition, and in this case the recognizable property fact that everyone in it is wearing clothes of some kind. Am I close?

Sorta. It's taking broad tropes from one medium and applying them to real life, or an exaggeration thereof. South Park did this for a whole episode, where the Nazgul were a group of older kids, the One Ring was a porno tape, etc. This is a bit more gentle, and it DOES kind of make sense that the elves might be coffee shop hippies. Plus urban fantasy is a popular genre, so it plays into that.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:59 PM on July 4, 2011

dunkadunc: "It pisses me off the same way it does when I hear "nigger", "granola" and "fag"."

But I like granola.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:02 PM on July 4, 2011

Trolling Saruman
posted by homunculus at 3:15 PM on July 10, 2011