About

Saruman the Stinky is a viral Lord of the Rings skit imagining the character Gandalf coming up with various insults against Saruman, including "Saruman the Stinky," which demoralizes him. Posted on YouTube in January 2023, the skit has since been a prominent subject of numerous fan animations and has been referenced in memes.

Origin

In the 2002 epic fantasy film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, the wizard Saruman (portrayed by actor Christopher Lee) talks about the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) during a scene, calling him "Gandalf the Fool" to mock his title "Gandalf the White" (scene shown below).^[1]

Gandalf the White. Gandalf the Fool! Does he seek to humble me with his newfound piety?

On January 20th, 2023, voice actor skurleton posted a skit imagining Gandalf coming up with insults against Saruman titled "Gandalf Claps Back." The video, since removed, gained over 50,000 views on YouTube^[2] prior to deletion (reupload shown below).

- Gandalf the White. Gandalf the Fool!
- Two can play at that game, Saruman the White. Or should I say Saruman the Stupid?
- What?
- Saruman the Silly!
- Stop that!
- Saruman the Wrinkly…
- Stop…
- SARUMAN THE STINKY!

Spread

The video inspired fan animations on YouTube over the following months and years. On February 18th, 2023, the YouTube^[3] channel Spine_apples posted an animated version of the skit that garnered over 4.3 million views in one year (shown below, left). On February 27th, YouTube^[4] user Ncs Artist posted a fan animation that garnered over 400,000 views in the same period (shown below, right).

More fan animations were posted to YouTube and TikTok in 2023 and 2024. For example, on May 1st, 2024, TikTok^[5] user @briansbricks posted a LEGO version of the meme that received over 938,000 views and 111,000 likes in three months (shown below, left). On May 2nd, TikTok^[6] user @melalfame posted a slideshow meme that received over 2.4 million views and 441,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References