Postwar Britain and America faced an acute lack of humor about Hitler. Yet through Charlie Chaplin, Mel Brooks, and John Cleese’s comedic performances, they successfully turned Nazis into laughing stocks.
Hitler is often mocked, yet is that proper? In an age where there are such clear parallels between Trump and Charlottesville, making jokes about Hitler is tempting, but is that appropriate?
Purpose
Students participating in this activity will examine two sources about Hitler and try to understand what they may be telling us about him. One source is an excerpt from a report written by a British businessman to the Foreign Office, while the second comes from Count Bernstorff, who opposed Nazism.
Once the war ended, Hitler hoped that German anger over their defeat would allow them to overthrow the new Weimar Republic government and establish a right-wing regime. He joined with groups explicitly formed to protest capitalism, Communism, the unpopular Treaty of Versailles, democracy, and Jews as evil forces.
His business deals with industrialists consolidated his financial standing, while his impressive oratory persuaded many that Germany could recover from its suffering by rediscovering its natural greatness. His promises of national redemption and unification won over working-class voters as well.
Hitler wasn’t particularly religious himself, yet he felt the need to present himself as a Christian to win over Germany’s predominantly Catholic population. Therefore, he began using public rhetoric that identified him as Christian and invoked biblical references; these messages would later be expanded upon in Mein Kampf, where Hitler declared his goal was “conquering lebensraum for Germany while purifying it of Jews, communists, and liberals.”
On November 8, 1923, Horst Wessel made his mark as a national figure and hero of right-wing nationalism through the Beer Hall Putsch. While his attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, it provided him with a solid platform from which to launch his movement: He pledged to restore prosperity, maintain civil order (by breaking up strikes and street demonstrations by workers and communists), remove Jewish financiers’ influence and turn Germany back into a world power.
As soon as his putsch failed, the government arrested Hitler and sentenced him to five years of incarceration – however, during this short stint, he dictated the first volume of Mein Kampf, expanding on the nationalistic and anti-Semitic ideas he had developed during early political struggles.
Audience
In Nazi times, it was common practice to joke about Hitler and his policies. With an increasingly militarized society and no free press left to express opinions without risking punishment, mocking Hitler could be used as a form of expression without threatening reprisals for dissatisfaction with government policies. Jokes could range from his physical appearance to that of his followers’ race purity – some were highly offensive while also affirming racist stereotypes.
Reducing Hitler to a joke carries with it an inherent risk that might reinforce his image as a mass murderer, thus most popular jokes about him in recent decades have often been harsh and insulting, taking form of caricatures or poking fun at his speech or mannerisms.
Hitler as a Comic is an incredible case study of how one figure can transition from being seen as terrifying to comic relief through humor. Hitler-themed shows illustrate this power and show its potential to help people feel less threatened by ideas or ideologies that threaten them.
Reminding ourselves how long it can take a society to recover from trauma is also a reminder of its long-term effect; Holocaust survivors continue to tell their stories while SS men serving prison terms for war crimes make the need to laugh at Hitler seem almost taboo.
Even so, some still make jokes about Hitler despite this history. One such instance is Danish director Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia, which won widespread acclaim from critics and received many compliments from Jewish groups for its depiction of life, death, and the universe. When Lars appeared at a Cannes news conference and joked about Hitler, there was widespread condemnation from this viewpoint.
Since being pulled from theaters following an Anti-Defamation League boycott campaign, this film has since been taken off shelves, yet questions surrounding whether or not satirizing Hitler are likely never fully answered. Joking about mass killers always creates new victims who could feel offended or vulnerable, as there will always be victims left hurt and traumatized by any jokes made about them.
Content
Though comedy has long been used as a form of satire, discussing Nazi history remains an awkward and often inappropriate topic for discussions and jokes. Many jokes involving Hitler may still be considered too shocking, and even well-intentioned artists struggle with how best to handle this topic without offending or trivializing Holocaust survivors and victims. With right-wing extremism on the rise worldwide, this question of whether it is acceptable or feasible to laugh at him has become ever more significant.
Luckily, new filmmakers are taking an alternative look at this turbulent period and giving audiences fresh perspectives. One such film directed by Taika Waititi called Jojo Rabbit depicts Hitler as the goofy yet endearing figure and has even won a Toronto International Film Festival audience award, yet critics have noted its perceived lack of historical accuracy as well as insinuations that Hitler was capable of being mocked or made fun of.
Other films have taken a more severe and direct approach to this period in history. Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” (1940) and Mel Brooks’s “Springtime for Hitler” (1942) depict the German leader as an absurd, pompous clown with delusions of world conquest; these works may not be as humorous but represent an antiauthoritarian spirit of humor that runs from Lubitsch through Cleese to beyond.
Nazi Germany made it illegal for anyone to joke about Hitler, yet the public continued using humor as an outlet to express their displeasure with the regime. Film, newspaper articles, and private collections provide fascinating glimpses into its culture at its height of power.
Some jokes can be offensive; one popular one features Hitler and his chauffeur driving across the countryside and colliding with a pig, then apologizing to its farmer only to be told it doesn’t matter since pigs lack the intelligence to understand better.
Conclusion
At a time when Nazi rule demanded complete conformity and suppressed free expression, telling jokes about Hitler was one way for people to voice their discontent without risking severe punishment. Many jokes made fun of anti-Jewish policies, economic issues, or Hitler himself; as the war progressed closer, jokes about him became darker.
Although Nazi history has become a fixture of popular culture, Germans still feel uneasy laughing at Hitler. Nazism was responsible for unspeakable atrocities, and dressing up as its genocidal dictator seems insensitive – yet British and American comedians find Hitler irresistible; Mel Brooks played Adolf in The Producers and John Cleese used Basil Fawlty from John Cleese’s To Be or Not to Be are only two such instances; similarly in Germany this subject matter rarely receives serious consideration from artists or authors despite Charlie Chaplin s slapstick take and Ernst Lubitsch’s lighthearted comedy To Be or Not To Be.
Yvonne Delhey, associate professor of Modern European History at Oxford, has conducted extensive research into German humor history and how it can be used to make complex issues more approachable for public debate. Her studies have tracked the emergence of Hitler jokes since the 1980s in Germany, specifically with cartoons depicting Hitler as a sizeless dictator dressed like a gnome, showing absurdities such as Hermine Goring being his transgender prostitute companion or having an obsession with skinny jeans.
Delhey considers this form of humor an act of cultural resistance, as it allows the German population to voice its dislike of Hitler without reprisal from authorities. This aspect of Third Reich culture remains vitally relevant today; perhaps that’s why Germany remains such an excellent platform for jokes about him. No matter your feelings about them, these will no doubt continue resurfacing as part of popular culture for years to come.
