What events in history are okay to laugh about?
What does it mean to laugh at history?
When we laugh at something does that mean we now have power over it?
It is okay to laugh at something like genocide?
I found this video on youtube. I won't tell you what to think about it but I want to hear your responses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
i'm seriously disturbed by this video, actually...
as much as i can see that it's for fun, i think it's really disrespectful toward the memory of the holocaust - hitler killed millions of jews in cold blood - i definitely don't think that this video is acceptable.
it's a bit offensive in my opinion... (in more ways than one) even though it was meant to be funny, i didn't find myself laughing... :\
this reminds me of a story in the news last halloween...
there was a boy who attended a jewish school. during his school's halloween celebration, he dressed up as hitler. many people, teachers and students alike, were offended by his costume, particularly because there were some whose family members died during the holocaust. the kid (and his parents) claimed that he had the right to freedom of expression and that he was simply being artistic. he claimed that it was meant as a joke.
do you think this is the same kind of thing as this video? how is it the same/different?
-coe
I think it is along the same lines as this video. I too was disturbed by the video... I understand that it is meant as a joke... but I think it is disrespectful of the deaths as well as trying to simply make fun of a horrendous deed.
As for coe's story... was the kid punished? Because I don't think there could be any reason for him to be punished b/c he didn't do anything "wrong.." it's more that both, I believe, are bad judgment calls. On the other hand.... people dress up as ax murderers for halloween.. so how is it different? (I agree that dressing up as hitler for halloween isn't a positive thing... just posing the question)
I am somewhere in the middle between perplexed and disturbed by this video. But on the subject of humor in the context of genocide I think that with the correct intentions it can be a very useful tool. For one, we need laughter to get through. Without it somethings are to hard to swallow, to understand, to comprehend. I once heard Mel Brooks discussing his reasoning behind poking fun at Hitler in his movie "The Producers." If you have not seen it I highly recommend it. There are a few scenes were Hitler sings and dances about his rise to power and the ideas behind the final solution. Back to Brooks. He said (and I am paraphrasing) that using Hitler in a comedic (and really ridiculous) way was the best way he knew how to memorialize Jews that were killed and to deny Hitler of a more serious reincarnation. Hitler was so outrageous he was degraded to a singing and dancing lunatic. This comedy was used to critique society and send a message and I feel that it can be a very powerful method.
This video did not do that for me.
I too did not find this funny at all. I could see how it was obviously supposed to be funny, but there were certain lines that the video crossed that brought it from funny to disturbing. Lines such as "I'm down with the Jews, Gypsies and retards" and "when i go in the club they say HILE" just really were not funny at all, among many other lines. Sort of in relation to Elias's piece about The Producers, I think that one can make fun of a social situation and the leaders in that, but not really genocide. There could be some humor in a porr social leader, but there really isnt anything funny about genocide.
I personally find this to be an insightful video.
Here's why: I think this video is meant as a commentary not so much on Hitler, but on some modern day American role models and why people like that can be admired. The video is a "rap," so I would assume the authors are trying to draw a comparison between how someone who talks abut violence e.c.t as something cool could be respected and lauded. Does that make sense?
I think there's a huge difference between people who sing about the gang life and Hitler who killed millions of people and destroyed many others' lives. I agree with everyone else and did not find the video funny in any way. The use of the words "retards" especially stung.
To answer Tal's question, I think the difference between dressing up as an axe murderer and dressing up as Hitler is exactly what Coe mentioned - "there were some whose family members died during the Holocaust." It's different to dress as a kind of crazy and unbelievable horror character than to dress as someone who actually lived on earth and decimated millions of lives. Hitler is not some make-believe figure, he was real and his actions were horrid.
yeah, i think this video was a little scary. Not only does it poke fun at something completely serious, but it also shows what pop culture is like in America, such as our values and our morals. Videos like these are telling our world that it's alright to laugh because it's history, it happened, whatever. but if anything, this is what we need to avoid. I don't know if this will make sense, but i remember rading how events in history and being like, "how could these poeple be so ignorant or dumb?" well, the same things are happening now, and our future generations are going to look back and scorn at our ignorance... it's like a vicious cycle. The video is an example of how we haven't learned from our past-we are still ignorant and selfish human beings.
It's interesting to think that the majority of Americans would be outraged by the content of this video, which attempts to make fun of Hitler/make the Nazi Holocaust funny, yet Neo-Nazi and other hate groups exist and thrive amongst out midst and there is no general widespread movement against them or active advocacy to disband them. I mean of course no one tolerates hate on a day to day basis, but it is only when topics are brought up in a tasteless video like this one that we really get upset. My thought is that this outrage should be channeled on a more regular and constant basis to help eradicate hate groups and their messages overall.
Another example is with the President of Iran: we are not that concerned as a general public with the oppression in Iran at any given time, but when the Iranian President comes to our country to speak it is suddenly the talk of the nation. My point is that the outrage of these kinds of controversies is often ephemeral, which is a sad and unhelpful fact.
i actually think some of the media is doing a good job on covering the oppression in iran - for instance, the woman who was stoned to death only a little whole ago. another example - the mass killings of gays a year or so back.
and... of course... the claims that iran has no nuclear weapons... :)
of course, some of the media doesn't cover this, but some of it does... i guess it just depends on where you get your news. :)
-coe
Post a Comment