Gilligan's Rewrite

[Editor's note: This almost surreal discussion appeared a few years back on the rec.arts.books.tolkien newsgroup. The subject was "Early Novels" (of Tolkien), but it kinda drifted off-topic a mite.]
Steve:You forgot a really important one.
Douglas:Okay, I'll bite, what did he forget?
Steve:Gilligan's Island. They later made it into a TV show.
Douglas:Yes, but we were talking about fiction here. Surely you are not suggesting that that show was not real? ::quirked eyebrow::
Steve:Recent textual analysis of the ship's logs indicates that after Gilligan brilliantly saved the day by rigging a transmitter out of three palm fronds, some chewing gum and the electrical energy from a decaying orange, the Skipper, Ginger and the Professor, realizing the marketing potential of their little adventure, beat him to death with a coconut. They then altered the logs by crossing out every "Gilligan" and replacing it with "the Skipper," and vice versa, in order not to look foolish. On the return voyage, everyone "mysteriously" died of food poisoning but the Skipper, who, made wealthy by the royalties from the show and the sale of "Gilligan" brand coconut juice, retired to his secluded fortress in Outer Mongolia and was never heard from again.
Douglas:This is the kind of open-minded, erudite and factual discourse I was expecting from this ng! Thank you!
SOURCE INFO

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 12:29:41 -0400 From: Douglas Henderson Subject: Re: Early Novels (was Re: Is Lord of the Rings the Best Fantasy novel?) Organization: DarkGrey Consulting Newsgroups: alt.fan.tolkien NNTP-Posting-Host: a5.f7.11.7a Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Server-Date: 27 Sep 1999 16:29:04 GMT

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