Linguistic puns, riddles, and jokes in LotR, etc.

[Mister Underhill]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Or is this one of Tolkien's ways of suggesting that the hobbits are indeed the smallest?

Smallest? Puns and jokes being "low", eh? Hmm...

Could this be a clue to the nature of hobbit resiliency? Whereas Men and Elves are always falling into despair over this that or the other, hobbits are able to endure even the grimmest of situations by injecting a little humor into them.