This clip from the epic war film – Downfall – on the life of the much-reviled German dictator has been a much-preferred spoofing subject. Hitler, in the virtual world of memes, has reacted to the banning of his XBOX account, Twitter downtime, Kanye West’s interruption at MTV Video Music Awards 2009, and even to the news of Usain Bolt breaking the 100 meter dash world record. Much more recently, Hitler has angrily reacted to HP giving up on WebOS, to the loss of an iPhone 5 prototype by a careless Apple employee in a bar, and even to the resignation of Steve Jobs himself.
When originally made, the famous scene was not remotely associated with comedy. However, some of the spoofs are undoubtedly fabulous. In fact, in an interview to an entertainment magazine, the director of the film, Oliver Hirschbiegel said, “I think I’ve seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director.”
What is most wonderful is that instead of hankering after intellectual property violations by the video spoofers, Hirschbiegel has most sensibly taken this as an acknowledgement of his craft. He goes on the say in that interview,”The point of the film was to kick these terrible people off the throne that made them demons, making them real and their actions into reality. I think it’s only fair if now it’s taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like.”