Bring Hitler back … to YouTube
Cute title, eh? Hoping to get some hate-comments going. A few days ago YouTube has started removing the countless parodies of Hitler losing his shit from the movie Downfall (Bruno Ganz’s great performance in many scenes was used as a parody of just about anything from the latest Lady Gaga costume, to Tiger Woods’ extra-marital exploits to the Health Care debates). People have created many such parodies, ranging from hilarious to downright disgusting, all mocking Hitler’s (Bruno’s) bad temper, tantrums and other explosive situations in the movie. Looks like somebody has started to complain, and YouTube blinked.
YouTube claims that they are removing the clips as the request of the movie production company – Constantin Film AG, who have monitored this popularity of Hitler parodies, and have, sadly, not noticed any extra profits from the sales of the Downfall DVDs, so they decided to use the ‘copyright infringement’ card, and pressure YouTube to pull the content. Along the lines, YouTube admits that there were come concerns and complains from Jewish organizations, and some parents. But it’s the copyright issue that’s used as the biggest reason for removal.
I call bullshit on the whole pathetic exercise in censorship. It’s nothing more than another attempt to remove something that ‘might’ be considered offensive, without even acknowledging its benign context. These are parodies. Mockery. The definition is right here for all of you. It’s even labeled as such (example of soon to be removed YT channel). There’s even a thread on twitter of people just subscribing to this channel, even though it’s pretty much defunct. So what just happened? A harmless, funny, possibly in poor taste, but completely legitimate, and at times artistic parody of a serious, dramatic movie is being exploited for a chance to either (1) sell more DVDs; (2) give exposure to the studio that made it; or (3) to honestly try to censor out a series of parodies? Parodies?
Go back a few steps. Downfall is a dramatic movie, about the last days of Hitler locked in his bunker, watching his empire crumble, and slowly falling apart himself. The movie shows a terrible man slowly disintegrating into the chaos and evil that he has created in Europe in 30s and 40s – which still resonates today, many decades later. If anything, movies about Hitler and Holocaust should be given even more exposure, more attention, to not let us forget. There are governments trying their best to convince us otherwise. No Holocaust my ass, Iran!
So by extension, a parody of something so serious should be given its place. It might be in poor taste, it might even be inappropriate, but it does illuminate the legacy, and the price we all paid for letting a man like that get power and an army. So … why are we removing these clips? Copyright issues, or just a misguided, misinformed attempt at some lame revisionist history? At least it the parody of a fictional film we’re erasing, it would be really bad move to start deleting old documentaries, actual footage of that time, eh YouTube?
So please bring Hitler parodies back, they may rub you the wrong way, but they’re not trying to be anything serious or substantial in the first place. It’s just a few people doing clip-jobs of an actor screaming real loud. It’s not propaganda. It’s on the same entertainment level as a cat playing piano. Bring Hitler parodies back! Here’s evil; and here’s an amateur parody of a film about somebody who was evil. Go after the former.
