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Questions! Questions That Need Answering

Watch James Franco Get Utterly Schooled Trying to Out-Geek Stephen Colbert On Tolkien [VIDEO]

by Rebecca Pahle | 5:30 pm, March 6th, 2013


James Franco was on The Colbert Report last night to promote Oz the Great and Powerful. And the Oz portion of his interview is fine. But if you skip to 5:19 you can see the good stuff: Franco tried to tried to trip up Colbert—who is the biggest Tolkien geek Peter Jackson has ever met, if you’ll remember—with a question about The Silmarillion. It doesn’t end well for him.

(via: MTV Movies Blog)

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  • John Wao

    Colbert might be the only guy on the planet who can quote both Tolkien and the Bible with equal aplomb.

  • http://beinggeekchic.com Being Geek Chic

    I love the section for this story: Questions!

  • http://twitter.com/EleniRPG Eleni

    Again! After getting schooled by Colbert last time?!

    I actually have a little fantasy in which I school Stephen Colbert on one particular piece of Tolkien knowledge: Quenya. I’ve heard him say one sentence in Quenya a couple times, but it was the same sentence both times, straight from the book, and I think he mispronounces it slightly (stress on the wrong syllable). While he knows way more of the Valar and basically all other subjects of Tolkien lore than I do, I bet I know more about Quenya (tiny vocabulary and only the most basic grammar–enough to construct my own sentences–and I do know which syllables to stress).

  • Anonymous

    Actually it’s not uncommon for the Inklings (which of course includes Tolkien) to be the subject of a course or two at Christian universities. But I will give Colbert is probably the most vocal.

  • http://twitter.com/Gemmabeta Gemmabeta

    you mean they are not the same book? The Silmarillion is just a few prophets short of the Old Testament

  • Not So Young Democrat

    So is Franco a fake geek guy?

  • http://www.facebook.com/KozmikPariah Ryan Colson

    Missing from this article: THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO JAMES FRANCO DURING HIS COLBERT APPEARANCE FOR YOUR HIGHNESS. That is all.:)

  • http://www.facebook.com/jennifer.osorio Jennifer Osorio

    I had a class on C.S. Lewis, Tolkien and Charles Williams at the University of Florida, so it’s not even just Christian schools.

  • Anonymous

    Ah, this was so much fun to watch :)

  • Benny

    “You come in my house!….MY HOUSE!!!”

    Good times,man.

    *drink*

  • http://wrongsirwrong.blogspot.com/ Magic Xylophone

    You come at the king, you best not miss.

  • Anonymous

    My love for Stephen Colbert knows no bounds.

  • Anonymous

    His Catholic throw down with Jack White was pretty entertaining. It was also a much more even match.

    http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/390484/june-23-2011/exclusive—2011–a-rock-odyssey-featuring-jack-white—catholic-throwdown

  • Sabrina

    The names of two Valar? How is that a challenge? Yet alone for Stephen Colbert? Sorry, James, you didn’t earn a “You tried” star, cause you didn’t really try at all.

  • http://twitter.com/borednihilist Bored Nihilist

    This post title is awful – completely misleading. It seems pretty clear to me that Franco was just joking around. He didn’t seriously think he could stump Colbert. He was laughing as soon as he finished asking the question. OBVIOUSLY Colbert would know two Valar, and Franco knows that. He’s not stupid (even if you dislike him, don’t dislike him because you think that he’s not intelligent).

  • Rebecca Pahle

    I dunno, it seemed to me like he thought Colbert might not know. He laughs and smirks through the entire interview. (Though I’ll admit it’s hard to tell when he’s being serious.)

    And where are you getting that I dislike him? I don’t dislike him. He’s fine.

  • http://twitter.com/borednihilist Bored Nihilist

    In my original comment I mean the general “you”, not you specifically. Franco seems to be a polarizing figure in pop culture, and I just wanted to emphasize that I don’t think people should dislike him because he’s not intelligent, because he is in fact very intelligent.

  • Anonymous

    And now we all know Colbert’s secret weakness!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dessa-Brewington/721495970 Dessa Brewington

    What’s a valar?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dessa-Brewington/721495970 Dessa Brewington

    Oh god, that was so worth it XD

  • Sabrina

    In short: They’re from Tolkien’s Silmarillion – sort of angelic spirits that are concerned with the creation of Middle-earth.

  • http://brightblueink.net/ Inky

    man, as soon as he asked the question I knew why Colbert easily answered that question. I couldn’t do it since I’ve been out of the fandom for a number of years but that’s a pretty easy question for someone really into Tolkien. He should’ve thought of something more obscure, like a character only mentioned in the family trees or something. (Like Pippin’s three sisters. Who I CAN still recite.)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003037095323 Jerilyn Nighy

    “The Silmarillion” is such a slog, everyone who gets through it deserves a medal.

  • Life Lessons

    “You come into my house?!” Love it. :)

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