When you've got Martin Freeman hosting “Saturday Night Live,” it's a safe bet they're going to figure out a way to do a “Hobbit” themed sketch.
Bonus points, then, to the show for doing a parody of both the Engish version of “The Office” and Freeman's Peter Jackson trilogy. “The Office: Middle-Earth” is about as easy a joke as they could make, but the execution actually pays off thanks to an attention to detail.
Ultimately, the best parody is done by people who love what they're making fun of, because that's when the jokes are going to be the sharpest. The original “Office” has inspired an entire aesthetic that's become very recognizable, but they made sure to get it right with everything here from the “JRR” logo done a la BBC to the way they reproduce specific jokes from the Ricky Gervais show.
Bobby Moynihan's Gandalf/David Brent hybrid is pretty spot on. He looks like McKellen, but the mannerisms are all Gervais, and they're laser accurate.
What pushes the sketch over the top, though, is Taran Killam's Gollum, playing the Gareth role. It's an incredible impression, and again… even though that's an easy joke, the delivery of “That was nasty trickses” is awesome.
I like how they use the Orc to reproduce the racist joke moment from the original “Office,” and the Brent awkward dance moment is also represented well here. There was one joke that is an old joke that's appeared in about a hundred different places, but I'm going to assume no one currently working at “Saturday Night Live” was alive when “Bored Of The Rings” was published, so we'll let the “Dildo Baggins” joke go.
Keep your eyes peeled at the end for an amazing Bombur, but it's just a quick glimpse. Overall, this was one of the sharper parodies “Saturday Night Live” has done in a while, and short enough that it didn't wear out the gag.