Nazi references, Part Deux

[Don Corleone]

So, avoiding the political vitriol of the first thread, and the whole question of why it's okay to compare Bush to Hitler but not Obama, I'm curious about another whole aspect of Nazis making their appearance in modern converse....

How do Germans feel about things like "Hogan's Heroes" and the like? I mean, Bob Crane, and a pre-Family-Feud-woman-kissing Richard Dawson were right there in the late 60s, making jokes about the gestapo, the SS, concentration camps... you name it.

Was it offensive? So banal and trivializing of such a profound truth of human suffering hiterto unknown in the world that it induced bewilderment?

I'm serious here... from the time I was old enough to understand what the Shoah actually was (I believe 9), Hogan's Heroes seemed macabre and grotesque. Yet it still plays on TV Land occassionally...

[HoreTore]

Everything both can and should be joked about.

The Bush/Obama nazi references aren't meant as just jokes however, and that's what makes them different from Hogan's Heroes.

To explain further:
-To jokingly compare health care to racial purity(for example), is ok.
-To seriously compare health care to racial purity, is not ok.

[gaelic cowboy]

It's a bit hard to take Nazi's seriously after watching even a single episode of Allo Allo

[Louis VI the Fat]

One shouldn't make jokes about the Nazi era!

It is painful, people have personal memories. For example, my own grandfather died a painful dead in Treblinka concentration camp...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

...where he fell from his watchtower.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry 'bout that. I couldn't resist.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Nah, but seriously.

Nazism is of course not a laughing matter. Show some respect, eh?

My own grandfather died in the resistance. For this, simply for being in the resistance, he was transported East, where he died, alone, during a cold winter's night in the Ukraine, killed resisting Bolshevism in the Charlemagne legion.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry 'bout that.

From now on I'll behave in this thread I SWEAR

[rory_20_uk]

Fair point though. The losers are vilified, the winner deified. Some did believe the propaganda that this is what they were fighting for.

[Husar]

This thread offends me.

Because it assumes that Nazi jokes offend me.

I think HoreTore summed the rest up somewhat.

[Ronin]

It's a bit hard to take Nazi's seriously after watching even a single episode of Allo Allo

exactly!

...I mean...Goad Moanin! :D

[Strike For The South]

If you can't joke about 6 million dead civilians what can you joke about?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

If you can't joke about 6 million dead civilians what can you joke about?

Your math is off.

Oh never mind, I keep forgetting your Texan. Math is easier there. One, two, three...ten, bunch, whole lotta, Texas-sized amount.

[HoreTore]

If you can't joke about 6 million dead civilians what can you joke about?

It takes 22.3 years before a tragedy can be laughed about. So, holocaust-jokes have been OK since around august 1967.

Also the reason why it's OK to joke about the 6 million killed in the holocaust, but not about the ~3000 killed in WTC....

[Strike For The South]

Your math is off.

Oh never mind, I keep forgetting your Texan. Math is easier there. One, two, three...ten, bunch, whole lotta, Texas-sized amount.

PEROSNAL ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One can simultaneously acknoweldge what happend was bad, but if you can't joke about it than those people still have a hold on you. Humor is a very good coping mechanism much better than mourning

[HoreTore]

PEROSNAL ATTACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, he did forget about you Texan's woeful spelling....

[Ronin]

Also the reason why it's OK to joke about the 6 million killed in the holocaust, but not about the ~3000 killed in WTC....

we have top men working on that right now....top men!

[The Stranger]

its not funny.. and he realises that at the end XD

[HoreTore]

its not funny.. and he realises that at the end XD

That's because he's a horrible comedian, not because the holocaust isn't funny....

When Peter Griffin wears a nazi outfit and tells Louis and her friend that "...there's only one way you're not getting on that train - bow-chicka-bow-wow", that's a hilarious holocaust-joke

[gaelic cowboy]

As always it take a self professed Paddy to figure out how to joke about nazism

[Meneldil]

On the topic of nazis/shoah jokes, around here, most people who make jokes about the nazis and the Shoah are unfortunately people who happen to think all this wasn't that bad, and that Israel is doing "way worse man!".

So yeah, I don't find them offensive per themselve. But unhappily, most people who make them are holocaust deniers or at least people who try to lessen it (most oftenly in order to blame Israel for something).

[HoreTore]

On the topic of nazis/shoah jokes, around here, most people who make jokes about the nazis and the Shoah are unfortunately people who happen to think all this wasn't that bad, and that Israel is doing "way worse man!".

So yeah, I don't find them offensive per themselve. But unhappily, most people who make them are holocaust deniers or at least people who try to lessen it (most oftenly in order to blame Israel for something).

Oh come on. That's like saying that those who make rapejokes doesn't think rape is bad.

[PanzerJaeger]

I find those that make crass Nazi references far less offensive than those weekend historians who apply a uniform immorality to every German who fought in the war.

[rory_20_uk]

Oh come on. That's like saying that those who make rapejokes doesn't think rape is bad.

But you woudn't make them in front of a rape victim.

[Fragony]

One shouldn't make jokes about the Nazi era!

It is painful, people have personal memories. For example, my own grandfather died a painful dead in Treblinka concentration camp...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

...where he fell from his watchtower.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry 'bout that. I couldn't resist.

That is the third time this week. Need air.

[HoreTore]

I find those that make crass Nazi references far less offensive than those weekend historians who apply a uniform immorality to every German who fought in the war.

I also find that those who keep telling the lie that "only the SS murdered jews" and other such nonsense in order to remove all blame from the Wehrmacht is far more offensive.

But you woudn't make them in front of a rape victim.

After 22.3 years, you can!

[Furunculus]

It takes 22.3 years before a tragedy can be laughed about. So, holocaust-jokes have been OK since around august 1967.

Also the reason why it's OK to joke about the 6 million killed in the holocaust, but not about the ~3000 killed in WTC....

good point, there is a point within the living memory of those who suffered where public jokes of this variety could be deemed deeply insensitive.

i take it you refer to the passage of generations with the 22.3 figure?

[al Roumi]

I'm not sure jokes about the actual holocaust are ok. Jokes about Nazis and their mannerisms are one thing, but you'll note that none of the attached clips (or any other popular jokes about Nazis that I know) poke fun at the prosecution of the holocaust or killing jews. I know some modern British comedians can be very dark int heir humour, but they do not cross the line of diminishing the horror of genocide.

[HoreTore]

:

good point, there is a point within the living memory of those who suffered where public jokes of this variety could be deemed deeply insensitive.

i take it you refer to the passage of generations with the 22.3 figure?

Am I the only one watching South Park on this forum?

[Furunculus]

probably, and certainly not me, apologies.

[HoreTore]

probably, and certainly not me, apologies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Has_Aides

[gaelic cowboy]

:

Am I the only one watching South Park on this forum?

No I have them all on boxset plus I'm always watching American Dad and Family Guy on BBC3

[Devastatin Dave]

Nazism attatched to Germany is so outdated when using it for discriptive purposes. Now when I'm talking to people about hard core porn involving feces, urine, or various farm animals, i play the german card....