1. The Producers (1968)
Adolf Hitler was a madman, a bigot, a dictator, and a cautionary example of how one man can induce a genocidal mass hysteria. So what, we can’t laugh at the guy? Popular culture is packed with examples of comedians trying to rob the Führer of some of his mystique by openly mocking him. In one of the most meta instances of Hitler hilarity, Mel Brooks wrote and directed a film he originally wanted to call Springtime For Hitler, after the name of the show within the show. The movie—renamed The Producers at the behest of skittish backers—stars Zero Mostel as a bumbling Broadway producer and Gene Wilder as an accountant who comes up with a plan to make money by soliciting investors for a surefire flop. The two partners decide to stage the pro-Nazi musical Springtime For Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf And Eva At Berchtesgaden, but are undermined by their leading man, who plays the material so outrageously that the audiences take the play as a bold, uproarious satire. Similarly, The Producers was hailed by many as one of the funniest movies ever made, in large part because Brooks was willing to risk “tastelessness” in the name of scoring some good jokes at the expense of one of history’s greatest monsters.
2. “Der Fuehrer’s Face” (1942)
Say good morning to Donald Duck in Deutschland, awakened by a Nazi band—Goebbels on trombone! Göring on piccolo!—marching by his home, cheerily playing “Der Fuehrer’s Face.” Donald chokes down a breakfast consisting of wood carved into the shape of a loaf of bread, coffee brewed from a single bean, and a spritz of Eau De Bacon And Eggs, then after his requisite morning skim through Mein Kampf, he’s is drafted to work “48 hours a day for the Führer,” handling quality control on artillery shells while suffering through a ceaseless stream of Nazi party propaganda. Although he continues to heil heartily all the while, the pressure grows too much for Donald. Then, on the precipice of a psychotic break, he wakes to realize that it’s all been a horrible, horrible dream and quickly clutches his miniature Statue Of Liberty, quacking, “Oh, boy, am I glad to be a citizen of the United States Of America!” Propaganda? Sure. But that doesn’t make the “no place like home” arc of this Disney cartoon any less satisfying.
3. To Be Or Not To Be (1942/1983)
It’s 1939. Do you know where Adolf Hitler is? When director Ernst Lubitsch kicks off the original version of this Nazi-skewering comedy, it appears that the Führer is taking a stroll around downtown Warsaw. In fact, it’s a man named Bronski (Tom Dugan), who plays Hitler in the local theater company’s latest endeavor, and goes for laughs by arriving onstage with the words, “Heil myself.” Later he gives the performance of a lifetime, helping his fellow actors—including stars Josef and Maria Tura, played by Jack Benny and Carole Lombard—escape from Poland to Scotland. How convincing is Bronski as Hitler? After taking off from the airport in Poland, he orders the two actual Nazis on the plane to jump, and even before checking for parachutes, they’re out the door and falling to their deaths. (“Two very obliging fellows,” muses Bronski.) Mel Brooks remade To Be Or Not To Be in 1983, tweaking the story somewhat in order to play both the star of the show—alongside real-life wife Anne Bancroft—and Hitler, too. Brooks’ adaptation can’t compete with the gravitas of Lubitsch’s version, which was made while Hitler was actually in power. But it surprises by shining a sympathetic light on the persecution of homosexuals during World War II, not to mention providing the first documented occasion of Adolf Hitler’s gifts as a rapper in an accompanying music video.
4. “Mr. Hilter,” Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1970)
You’d think that after faking his death, Hitler would put a bit more effort into a new identity than simply transposing the third and fourth letters of his name. But never underestimate the ability of British tourists to overlook the obvious. When Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are introduced to the fellow residents of their boarding house in Somerset, they don’t bat an eye when introduced to Dickie Hilter and his pals Reg Bimmler and Ron Vibbentrop, even though the trio is sporting Nazi regalia. Though Hilter is ostensibly planning a hike to Bideford, Mr. Johnson notices a slight error in his map selection, observing, “This is Stalingrad, you want the Ilfracombe and Barnstaple section…” Hilter storms out of the room, presumably to continue work on securing a victory in the North Minehead by-election (he’s the candidate for the National Bocialist party), leaving Ron to apologize for his friend’s behavior: “He’s a bit on edge. He hasn’t slept since 1945.”
5. “The Germans,” Fawlty Towers (1975)
Fawlty Towers co-creator John Cleese has said that this episode of his classic sitcom was intended to skewer the excessive gentility of the English, as exemplified by the usually acerbic hotel proprietor Basil Fawlty insisting that his staff not bring up World War II in front of their German guests. But what most people remember about “The Germans” is the sight of Cleese as Basil goose-stepping around the hotel dining room with his finger under his nose. It all comes about because Basil suffers a head injury and finds himself saying one inappropriate thing after another in front of the Germans. Still, when Basil sniffs that his guests have no sense of humor, he has a point. If the people who were bombed by the Nazis can joke about it now, why can’t the people who did the bombing?