[the guy who be short]

I'm afraid I must bring the ultimate punishment down on Samwise Gamgee for daring to challenge Bilbo.

Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 246

Sam...Some readers he irritates and even infuriates. I can well understand it... Sam can be very 'trying'. He is a more representative hobbit than any others that we have to see much of; and he has consequently a stronger ingredient of that quality which even some hobbits found at times hard to bear: a vulgarity... a mental myopia which is proud of itself, a smugness... and cocksureness...
Sam was cocksure, and... conceited... his service and loyalty to his master... had an ingredient... of pride and possessiveness.

Even Tolkien disliked the scamp.*

*Slight omissions may have been carried out to portray Sam in a more negative light.