I know that from the first LOTHR:TFOTR that Gollum had the ring for 5 centuries until Biblo got the ring. During the 5 centuries it destoryed Gollum(Fans of this series please correct if I'm wrong as I'm a causal fan here). As a side effect Gollum now has split personailites.

Every time I've seen the movie, both audience laughed at Gollum's dual persona's . Someone on this board once said that Gollum was tragedy. Why would people want to laugh at someone's else misfortune? Whould they be behaving the same if they held the ring for 500 years?

Can anyone shed some light as to why people are laughing at Gollum for? Does he make it the end of this series?

The main reason Gollum makes people laugh is that he is CGI . People aren't use to a dramatic cgi character. The two biggest CGI characters in cinema so far have been Jar Jar Binks and Dobby from the latest Harry Potter flick (Yes Yoda was CGI but no one thinks of him as a CGI character like they do the other two). That and he's insane. For the most part, unless the character is extremly violent, the general public finds great humor from the insane in film. I heard that Gollum was "played for laughs" before I got to see the film and was disapointed. I thought that PJ played it for as few laughs as possible. The audience laughing doesn't bother me though. When I watch it at home I won't have to hear it...

i think it's because his charater was written with a SLIGHT comic relief (i.e. his riddles, that he talks to himeself, etc.) i think they used that, as well as gimli's role, for a minor comical relief to a very intense, serious film.

I think if I had never read the books I would have laughed to by the way he is written into the movie. I don't think the alternating side to side shots of him helped either.

cause he has got some really funny lines
People won't be laughing in the next film at Gollum

It's intentional, I think. Gollum's first "conversation" with himself does have some funny lines ... up *until* he says the word "murderer." At that point the audience usually shuts up quick.

Also, bear in mind that people who haven't read the book don't know what to make of Gollum. Many people probably assume that he's a comic relief character at the start, or that he'll be successfully tamed and turned into a cute sidekick.

The average american movie-goer isn't intelligent enough to see the tragedy in it and just finds it funny.

Thankfully the second time I saw it their wasn't as much laughing.

Oh, I dunno.

Maybe 'cuz he's funny.

Ya think?

There was a bit of laughing in my viewing as well but not as much as there was for Gimli's slapstick tragedy.

Smeagol's happiness over his victory over Gollum (temporary as it was) did make me smile and perhaps a bit of a chuckle.

I can't remember a single funny thing about Smeagol/Gollum from the books but that could just be the way I took it.

The audience did laugh quite a bit when I went to see it. I think that the conversation/argument between Smeagol and Gollum (along with funny face expressions/gestures/looks) did not help. As stated above, most people did shut up later on.

People laughed at Yoda when he was posturing against Dooku. But when he started in with the lightsaber, they shut up pretty quick.

Truly tragic characters are so rare in american cinema that it's no surprise that people don't know what to make of him. I also think they may be unaware of the fact that he used to be a hobbit like creature before finding the ring. They're probably assuming he always looked like more or less like that.

That's a good point... not knowing his back story well makes it tougher to feel his pain.

Well, he does spend a good amount of time talking to himself. It's hard to take a character completely seriously when he does that. He is a tragic figure, but there is some humor in there.

But I did find it extremely disturbing when Faramir and his boys were threatening to kill him as he was leaping around trying to catch a fish.

And as far as Gollum in the next film, paraphrasing Gandalf, he may yet have a role to play that none can yet see. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

I wonder what the people who haven't read the books think will happen to Gollum at the end? They probably think that after he will be released from it's spell and return to normal or something.

I think they're going to be surprised

Perhaps they will be surprised....

Smeagol should get a nice snack before all is said and done.... nudge nudge.

"Like, Hey Dude! Locals Only!!!"

My audiences seem to laugh at Gollum initially, but about halfway through his self argument, they tend to hush up as they realize that this is a tormented being capable of serious harm.
In all honesty, I think that this movie, Psycho(Hitchcock's), and Red Dragon(with the Ralph Fiennes character) do really good jobs of portraying "psychopaths" in a complex light. Like was said earlier, most screen psychos are either clowns or brutal monsters. Hardly anyone ever attempts to show that there is almost always an internal conflict occurring within the being as to whether or not he is good or bad.

Hannibal Lecter is a good screen psycho, but they took the route of making him a charismatic monster with an almost supernatural presence about him. There was no conflict in him as he had already decided he was a monster.

I hate to say this, but does Omar the Crackhead on "OZ" remind anyone of Gollum?

Well, personally, I found the juxtaposition of Gollum's rage and Smeagol's wide-eyed innocence to be mildly humorous. So, I can understand why people were laughing.

In any case, I do think that scene was played for laughs until he said "murderer", at which point the audience I was watching with stopped laughing, as well.

just for the record...as a general rule you don't put the word 'for' at the end of a sentence....you may simply ask: why are people laughing at the Golem? Or, For what reason are people laughing? Why and For simply don't belong in the same sentence. You could, however, ask "what are people laughing at the Golem for"....

k...now off my grammar pedestal

Oh, and for the record, I found the Golem pretty damn funny....in a creepy and sad kind of way.....

Grammar Nazi

what reality are you living in, everything bad that happens to someone else is always funny. Man gets hit in the ball with football, funny for us, Not funny for the guy who is holding his nuts in pain.

"No Words For You! One Year!!!"

True… here's my best example.

When Brad Pitt's character get's sent flying by a passing car in Meet Joe Black I let out a huge laugh. It felt like a fart in church!

*Dead Silence* (except movie)

*My Huge Ga-faw*

*Shocked Silence*

golem:

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
Gollum: (Proper noun) Character in The Lord of the Rings