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Arts & Entertainment

Why Are There <em>Lord Of The Rings</em>-Themed Mock MTA Posters Around The Subways?


By

Ben Yakas

Published Apr 5, 2013

Modified Apr 5, 2013


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Left, via Reddit; right, via Puckworks

 


By

Ben Yakas

Published Apr 5, 2013

Modified Apr 5, 2013


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Fake MTA posters are a dime a dozen at this point—Y Train signs, free subway rides, hipster signs, heck, we've even made our own fake signs before. But this year, one intrepid street artist/prankster has dedicated himself to placing Lord Of The Rings-themed MTA posters around the subway stations (as you can see above).

As fans of all things Tolkien around these parts—from the NY Times corrections to the latest The Hobbit films—we were particularly pleased by the incredibly specific signage filled with excerpts from the books and images of some of Tolkien's finest creatures (Mirkwood Spiders, Treebeard, Nazgul). The posters are the work of one William Puck, who has a blog keeping track of each sign as they go up (you can see more of the posters there).

We've reached out to Puck to try to ask him a bit more about his project, especially because there's one part we can't quite figure out: all of the signs direct people to puck.info for "travel info, travel tools, widgets, app, and more." While this is likely just mirroring the MTA's "go to mta.info" language, there is no address for his own blog, and there really IS a puck.info. So is it just an oversight, or is Puck secretly working to spread viral marketing for a Polish travel website?

Tagged

lord of the rings

MTA

mysteries

performance art

sauren

subway

tolkien

train

original


Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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