By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
You know you’ve reached a level of notoriety when someone creates a Hitler Goes Ballistic meme in your disfavor. Well, now it has happened for our friends at Patreon where a creator dubbed over a clip from the WWII film “Der Untergang / Downfall” and had the charity to cast Patreon CEO Jack Conte as Hitler.
The reported author surely displays courage to craft this, considering that he receives significant funding from Patreon, who’s Trust and Safety Team seems bent on wiping out what they disagree with, or what others label as being “Nazi” or such. Casting Mr. Conte as Hitler is worth a laugh in itself for the irony.
For those unfamiliar, the Hitler Goes Ballistic or Hitler Rants meme stems from a 2004 German Language Film “Der Untergang”, subsequently translated into English. The film features the Battle of Berlin and Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s last days cloistered within a command and control bunker as Soviet Forces arrive at the doorsteps.
In the actual film depicted and parodied, Hitler begins with a meeting with advisors and general officers discussing the advance of the Red Army where Hitler dismisses the breakthrough and overrunning of the suburbs as he believes that Steiner’s forces can counterattack and rout the Russians. But his advisors indicate that Steiner couldn’t muster enough forces to prosecute an effective assault, to which Hitler goes ballistic–ranting about how his generals disobeyed his direct orders, have no Honor, are cowards and traitors, failed the German People but that he conquered Europe himself. Broken, he finally resigns himself to defeat and declares that the war is lost.
From this foundation and platform, perhaps hundreds of copies of the video were made in the years since whereupon English subtitles depicting a completely different dialog lampoon everything from Critiquing The Last Jedi, to England winning the World Cup, to discovering Hitler’s daughter is pregnant.
I suppose it was only inevitable that Patreon and the row over its decision to censor creators would result in such a parody. Humor and ridicule can be an effective measure against censorship in of itself. So with no further delay, here is Jack Conte in the role of Adolf Hitler:
By Darren Smith
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.