Author: The Harvard Lampoon

This is not a person. The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humour magazine founded in 1876, its books written collectively by whoever is on the staff that year, and its alumni have filled American television comedy writing rooms for half a century. Bored of the Rings, published in 1969, is a short parody of Tolkien that has now stayed in print longer than a good deal of what it was mocking. The magazine has produced several such books, always credited to the institution rather than to individuals, and each one runs exactly as long as the joke can carry.