Today's video pranksters are goofing around in a media world without censors, a fact that oddly gives their work more visibility and less bite. No one gets upset in the Internet era to see President Obama compared to the German mass murderer or the White House to the Berlin bunker.I dunno: these parodies all mock Hitler rather than comparing anyone to him. The joke is having a huge, vein-popping conniption fit over whatever mock outrage suits your pleasure.
Stalin & Mao, it is pointed out, score very few parodies. But that is because they've scored very few movie treatments. When someone makes a movie showing Stalin or Mao pitching a hissy, parodists everywhere will be grateful for new material, I'm sure.
Meanwhile, the director who started it all, you'll be relieved to know, is not prissy about the parodies:
The German director of "Downfall," Oliver Hirschbiegel, is reportedly thrilled by the appropriations of his film. "I think I've seen about 145 of them," he told New York magazine. "You couldn't get a better compliment as a director."Curtsy: Ken Thomas
