JustASC

Syndicated columnist Susan Estrich raises an interesting point about a series of YouTube videos in which amateurs subtitle a clip from a Hitler biopic to make the Fuerher rant about the topic du jour: the Dallas Cowboys’ playoff loss, being kicked off of Microsoft Live, losing his Xbox account, etc. In the most recent incarnation, Hitler is Hillary Clinton, ranting against Obama’s primary lead.

Writes Estrich:

There is, obviously, something very troubling about this very popular series. Hitler is not funny. Killing six million Jews is no joke.
Waging war across Europe, slaughtering millions of people because of their religion, or because they were gypsies or gay, is just not humorous. Sixty years, almost to the day, from the founding of Israel out of the ashes of the Holocaust, can it be that putting words to the rant of the most evil man of our time is the key to Internet fame, if not fortune?

The thing is, it IS funny when the 20th century’s signature madman is shown raving about having wasted his money on a Terrell Owens jersey. The video doesn’t mock anybody but Hitler, over-the-top television actors, and Dallas Cowboy fans — and the sputtering rage they felt when their team botched yet another shot at the Superbowl. (As one fan comments on the video at YouTube: “This is AWESOME! It explains *exactly* what it it was like to be a Cowboy fan and lose this season. “)

The joke wears off in the Hillary version, however. It’s goofily absurdist to imagine Hitler as a Cowboys or X-Box fan. But it’s a low blow to compare Clinton, or any politican really, to Hitler.

Mel Brooks and Charlie Chaplin showed you can deflate Hitler and his myth through parody. But the lesson of these “downfall” videos: Pick your targets carefully.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 1:57 pm and is filed under JustASC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.