Much like Frodo’s epic journey to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, meme-making is a quest that many Lord of the Rings fans feel like they have no choice but to undertake.

Unlike Frodo, though, they don’t hope to get rid of this thing that they find so strangely beguiling. Tolkien-inspired memes can inspire a possessiveness of sorts in the fandom, in the sense that they are a product of their dedication to the cause that is frequently celebrated even by those who are not complete LOTR obsessives. At the same time, they get so much enjoyment out of making stupid jokes using scenes that they have watched a hundred times over that they are unlikely to be all that bothered when one of their memes breaches containment.

While Tolkien was a man of many talents, it is fair to say that he probably couldn’t predict how a bunch of people riffing on some of his most famous works would become a bona fide cultural phenomenon. Yet the movies based on his books have remained culturally relevant not just because they are timeless classics, but also because they have been painstakingly memed, frame by frame (some scenes more notorious than others). A lesser series might buckle under the weight of all this humor, but it only seems to make the public appreciation for LOTR even stronger. The tale that it tells and the way it can somehow be applied to every single kind of everyday situation remain a crowd-pleaser that shows no signs of slowing down.