Jokes about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center are numerous, although not politically correct. One riddle is:
   
Q: What’s the difference between Middle Earth and New York City?
A: Two towers.
 
The joke is on YouTube, “James Willems Stand Up @ Let’s Play Live NYC,” and was cited several times on Twitter on October 8, 2016.
 
   
Wikipedia: September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11) were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda on the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks consisted of suicide attacks used to target symbolic U.S. landmarks.
 
Four passenger airliners—which all departed from airports on the U.S. East Coast bound for California—were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists to be flown into buildings. Two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Within an hour and 42 minutes, both 110-story towers collapsed, with debris and the resulting fires causing partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center tower, as well as significant damage to ten other large surrounding structures.
 
Wikipedia: Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of British writer J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. The term is equivalent to the term Midgard of Norse mythology, describing the human-inhabited world, i.e. the central continent of the Earth in Tolkien’s imagined mythological past. Tolkien’s most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, take place entirely in Middle-earth, and Middle-earth has also become a short-hand to refer to the legendarium or its fictional universe.
     
Twitter
nicole‏
@nicedynamavin
what’s the difference between middle earth and nyc
2 towers #LetsPlayLive
7:47 PM - 8 Oct 2016
 
Twitter
mickey.‏
@spctIessmind
“What’s the difference between middle earth and new York? Two towers.” OH MY GOD I CAN’T BREATHE WHYYYY #LPLNYC @JamesWillems
7:47 PM - 8 Oct 2016
 
Twitter
Hannah Shea‏
@BossClarinetist
“What’s the difference between Middle Earth and New York City?”
...
“Two Towers”
#LetsPlayLive
7:47 PM - 8 Oct 2016
 
Twitter
ImScrubLife‏
@erich_topper
“What’s the difference between Middle Earth and New York City? Two Towers.”
@JamesWillems at #LetsPlayLive
7:48 PM - 8 Oct 2016
 
YouTube
James Willems Stand Up @ Let’s Play Live NYC
YEN
Published on Oct 9, 2016
Jame’s and Elyse’s infamous 9/11 joke at Let’s Play Live NYC
1:45
“What’s the difference between Middle Earth and New York City? Two towers.”
 
Reddit—Jokes
What’s the difference between Middle Earth and NYC
submitted June 8, 2017 by Vinniepaz420
Two Towers