Post Description

Sometime around the start of the Second World War, the British government rounded up the country's driest wits and funnymen, trucked them to an undisclosed location, and told them it was their national duty to relentlessly mock Adolf Hitler. Forget airplanes and munitions, Britain deployed its greatest weapon: taking the piss out of the big scary Nazis. Afterall, idiots and buffoons aren't really a threat are they? And thus we have the delightfully titled 2007 documentary, Hitler: The Comedy Years, screening at the 20th annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival.

The documentary examines the ongoing British and American fascination with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis as figures of comic scorn. As the talking heads point out, all other things put aside, Hitler is a weird looking little man. It's almost too easy – the fancy uniforms, the silly little moustache, the obvious short man's complex. From the first rumblings of threat in Germany to today, Brits and Americans have delighted in poking fun and mocking what is on the one hand history's most evil force and on the other hand history's most epic fail. If it wasn't so horrible, it would be funny. Or, as Hitler: The Comedy Years demonstrates, if it wasn't so funny, it would be horrible.

The doc also tracks through the evolution of pop culture depictions of Hitler and his merry band of evil-doers, noting that the way we laugh at Hitler has changed right along with the way we feel about the Second World War. Particularly fascinating is the historical divergence of British and American depictions of Nazis in the '60s and '70s, when the Americans opted for a rather more sexy version. You know all that black leather, kinky, S&M eroticism? That's the American version of Nazis, one which the Brits never quite adopted.

Hitler: The Comedy Years is full of awesome footage (and a few laughs). From Charlie Chaplin and Looney Tunes, to The Producers and Fawlty Towers, right through to some very disturbing Hitler porn. And not the fun metaphorical porn, like: "I love kitten porn." We're talking actual pornography featuring a Hitler look-alike in all sorts of degrading positions. Which isn't even the most jaw-dropping pop-culture reimagining of Hitler on offer here. The documentary features a discussion of the almost unbelievable 1990 Heil, Honey, I'm Home!, a British sitcom that presents Hitler and Eva Braun as stereotypical 1950s sitcom characters living next door to a Jewish couple. Yeah, that's right. Not surprisingly, Heil Honey, I'm Home! was cancelled after one episode.

In the end, Hitler: The Comedy Years is fascinating and wildly entertaining, but it feels lightweight. The discussion suggests a deep vein of meaning, but the documentary itself remains very top-line. While personally I don't find the subject matter offensive, some might without a deeper examination to counter-weight the frivolity.

 

Leave it to the Brits to make an irreverent and thought-provoking documentary like this! In 1939, as the British prepared for war with Germany, their plan was to try and turn Hitler into a caricature of himself. In fact, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain asked the BBC to gather their best comedy writers, to create satire that would delegitimize Hitler as a world leader. The German Fuhrer was considered to be "comedy gold," because of his short stature, ridiculous hair and silly moustache. Filmmaker Jacques Peretti examines a long list of film and television satire that ranges from Chaplin's The Great Dictator to Russ Meyer's Supervixens.

COUNTRY: UK
YEAR: 2007
RUNNING TIME: 48 MIN
DIRECTOR: JACQUES PERETTI