comic relief in LotR

[Lalwendë]

I'll second Littlemanpoet's vote for: I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. One day I shall work this line into my retirement speech (now five years further down the line than I had thought but I digress...).

I like all the humour linking Hobbits and food; there seems to be a fair bit of this in the first chapter, naturally. As an example, when the Hobbits are startled by Gandalf's firework, their trauma is soon relieved by the appearance of supper:

They all ducked, and many fell flat on their faces. The dragon passed like an express train, turned a somersault, and burst over Bywater with a deafening explosion.

'That is the signal for supper!' said Bilbo. The pain and alarm vanished at once, and the prostrate hobbits leaped to their feet.

Tolkien also used the phrase 'filling up the corners', which is one I know well, descriptive of the state you get in after Christmas dinner, bloated and groaning but reaching for another peanut and glass of sherry all the same.

But an overlooked gem from Bilbo is this:

'Isildur's Bane is found, you say,' said Boromir. 'I have seen a bright ring in the Halfling's hand; but Isildur perished ere this age of the world began, they say. How do the Wise know that this ring is his? And how has it passed down the years, until it is brought hither by so strange a messenger?'

'That shall be told,' said Elrond.

'But not yet, I beg, Master!' said Bilbo. 'Already the Sun is climbing to noon, and I feel the need of something to strengthen me

I'm sure many of us know just how Bilbo feels there.