{"id":9842,"date":"2017-08-26T06:50:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-26T06:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=9842"},"modified":"2017-08-27T06:52:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-27T06:52:55","slug":"for-a-primer-on-how-to-make-fun-of-nazis-look-to-charlie-chaplin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/for-a-primer-on-how-to-make-fun-of-nazis-look-to-charlie-chaplin\/","title":{"rendered":"For a primer on how to make fun of Nazis, look to Charlie Chaplin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Hagopian<\/a>, Pennsylvania State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

White nationalists and neo-Nazis are having their moment. Former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke is back, yet again, in the media spotlight, while newer figures such as white supremacist Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell are broadcasting their views via social media feeds and niche internet channels. <\/p>\n

Many Americans are wondering if this resurgent movement should be ignored, feared or fought. What, exactly, is the best antidote for neo-Nazism?<\/p>\n

What about laughter?<\/p>\n

While the August 12 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia was no joke, the images of armor-clad, tiki-torch-wielding white nationalists did give fodder to late-night talk show hosts<\/a> and editorial cartoonists<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In a different age, another ascendant white supremacist \u2013 Adolf Hitler \u2013 used a combination of garbled ideas, stagy phrasing and arch gestures to bewitch much of his nation, even as the rest of the world looked on in disbelief and terror.<\/p>\n

While many anti-fascists offered serious and potent arguments against Hitler, comedians like Charlie Chaplin responded to the mortal threat that the Nazis posed in a different way: They used humor to highlight the absurdity and hypocrisy of both the message and its notorious messenger.<\/p>\n

Chaplin homes in on his target<\/h2>\n

In late 1940, producer-director-star Charlie Chaplin released \u201cThe Great Dictator.\u201d Often considered Chaplin\u2019s last great film, \u201cThe Great Dictator<\/a>\u201d is the tale of a little Jewish barber in the mythical (but obviously German) nation of Tomania. The barber is mistaken for a dictator modeled after Adolf Hitler named Adenoid Hynkel, and the barber is forced to carry out his impersonation of the German warlord to save his own life.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Hitler\u2019s trademark mustache mimicked Chaplin\u2019s.<\/span>
\n Insomnia Cured Here<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea of a film satirizing Hitler was one Chaplin had been working on for years. Chaplin was a dedicated antifascist, and was alarmed at Hitler\u2019s ability to captivate the German people. He warned members of the Hollywood community<\/a> not to underestimate Hitler merely because they found him comical, an effect magnified by Hitler\u2019s unfathomable decision to apparently borrow<\/a> the most famous mustache in the world \u2013 Chaplin\u2019s little black toothbrush \u2013 as his own trademark. <\/p>\n

Chaplin regarded Hitler as one of the finest actors he had ever seen. (Hitler carefully monitored his public persona<\/a>, studying photographs and film of his speeches, and taking lessons in public presentation.) Nonetheless, Chaplin, whose international success was based on little people challenging and defeating powerful institutions and individuals, recognized that comedy could be used against Hitler. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in his autobiography. \u201cRidicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chaplin was warned in 1939 that the film might be refused release in England and face censorship in the United States. Political factions in both nations were anxious to placate the unpredictable, angry Hitler, and \u201cThe Great Dictator\u201d could be calculated to enrage the Nazis, who reviled Chaplin<\/a> as a \u201cJewish acrobat.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Chaplin was a partner in the distribution company United Artists; simply put, he was his own producer, and answerable primarily to himself when it came to risky investments. Due to Chaplin\u2019s perfectionism, all of his films were expensive. \u201cThe Great Dictator\u201d was no different: It cost US$2 million to produce, an enormous sum at the time. That perfectionism delayed the film\u2019s distribution until the height of the English Blitz, by which time audiences in the U.S. and England were ready for Chaplin\u2019s humor of defiance. In 1940, the year of its release, \u201cThe Great Dictator\u201d was the third highest-grossing film<\/a> in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Exposing a fraud<\/h2>\n

Much of the comedy of \u201cThe Great Dictator\u201d comes from a merciless indictment of those who would follow such a patently idiotic character. The satire mocks Hitler\u2019s absurdity, solipsism and overweening vanity, while also highlighting Germany\u2019s psychological captivity to a political fraud.<\/p>\n

All the techniques of the tyrant are on view: the arbitrary demonizing of identity groups, the insistence on mindless loyalty from his followers, the unpredictable behavior toward foreign leaders that ranges from mere abuse to deceit, even the hostility toward science in favor of dogma. (A series of inventors die while demonstrating the patently impossible military technology Hynkel demands, like a bulletproof suit and a parachute hat.) Hynkel is also a casual sexual harasser and grossly overestimates attendance at official functions.<\/p>\n

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