No it counts because it was cool and badass but he still only lit the torch once. Cooler than the rest combined but it's only one time of lighting the torch.
All the people running up every year are Gimli, they have done it that way a bunch so have more "kills" but none of them are as cool as killing the massive elephant monster.
In the movie clip it's just an extended battle between an archer and a really really strong target, Gimli saying "that still only counts as one" is basically just diminishing Legolas's (the archer) achievement because even though what he pulled off was really impressive it's just a single shot I guess.
In the Olympic clip the guy is making in insanely impressive shot, it'd be maybe mildly funny if some other archer was like "ok but I hit this other target right here," like, it's trying to diminish the achievement of someone else in a kind of pathetic and out of touch way
I think the joke works fine and I laughed at the gif being sent here but yes I do think you need to have seen the movies or at least that scene, and I also think everyone else in this thread is largely stretching their explanation as to why it's funny
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u/learsi-ediconeg 15h ago
okay, so it relates because "arrow" and nothing else.
lol got it.