Hitler Meme gets the BSG treatment

YouTube user slumbering has hilariously applied the Hitler Meme to Battlestar Galactica: Hitler's BSG Breakdown (SPOILERS)

This hyper-dramatic excerpted scene from the 2005 German movie Der Untergang (Downfall) has famously been used in so many parodies and seen by so many millions of internet users that it's become known as the Hitler Meme. There are dozens of versions where Hitler rants about Xbox Live, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, World of Warcraft, Runescape, the Jazz drive click of death, the Dallas Cowboys, the New England Patriots, the discontinued HD-DVD format, Microsoft Windows Vista, Hillary Clinton's loss of the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and now Battlestar Galactica. Practically any pop culture topic with a rabid fan base isn't safe from sarcasm subtitles with this movie clip.

Perhaps the funniest parody of them all was the first in October 2006 shortly after Downfall was released on home video. DReaperF4's Sim Heil: Der untersim mocking one of the most epically disastrous entertainment software product launches in computing history, Microsoft's Flight Simulator X. Although I'm really not sure since I don't read Spanish! Shortly after the video was translated and remade with English subtitles and that remains my personal favorite. Sadly it is the hardest video of them all to find. The more truthful minutiae that is crammed into the parody, the funnier it becomes. As any consumer who had the misfortune to buy FSX 1.0 will attest, Hitler's dissatisfaction is scathingly accurate.

Viral video usage of the Downfall clip spread until last spring blogger Sean-O made an ingenious parody about all of the parodies themselves, using the clip to have Hitler rant about all of the other clips, ashamed being mocked on "the internets" and resignedly canceling his AOL account. It might have been Sean-O who first dubbed the meme a meme for his own video: Sean-O.com: Hitler Is A Meme

The New York Times The Hitler Meme and Wired Hitler Remixes Are Big -- on YouTube have commented on the viral phenomenon.

The point of this post is to nag you to watch Downfall, an excellent foreign film and to watch these parodies while you still can! Like Walt Disney, Downfall's production company zealously pursues any copyright infringements of its movies online. They really do not care for these parodies. As noted by the NYT, sooner or later Hitler's BSG Breakdown will get tagged with This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Constantin Film Produktion GmbH.

And if you saved a copy of "Hitler Reviews Microsoft's Flight Simulator X," let me know. Not only do I have a blog, the hula hoop of the 21st century, now I'm talking about memes, an ephemeral buzzword if there ever was one. I find this distressing and frightful. Better get back on topic next post with BSG 4.5, the final episodes.

And many kudos to slumbering for a great video. What? What's wrong with the word "kudos" ?

EOL,
ThP