Look Who’s Back [Via]
In the run up to and during World War Two, Adolf Hitler was ridiculed, mocked and laughed at all around the world. Even Charlie Chaplin produced a show as Hitler.
However, once the war ended and the extent of the Holocaust became evident there were few who could laugh at or make fun of Hitler.
It wasn’t until the late 1960s when Mel Brooks, the Hollywood director and who served in World War Two, made the movie, ‘The Producers’. This was the turning point when people began to laugh at Hitler again.
Many other comedy reflections of Hitler followed. But in Europe it has taken a lot longer for the culture to feel that it can laugh at the dictator. A new ironic book called, ‘Look Who’s Back’ has been written by German writer Timur Vermes. It tells the story of Adolf Hitler who wakes up in the year 2011, bringing Hitler back to life.
The people in the novel recognise and understand who Hitler is, but they think he is just an impersonator who won’t stop acting his Hitler character. It tells of how he is hired on a comedy show where he goes on a mad rant and it is put on YouTube. It goes viral and he becomes a star, even moving on to his own talk show on television.
The novel goes on to look at how Hitler’s evil personality fares in the multicultural, democratic and social media driven society we live in today. It has already sold around two million copies and has been translated into other languages.
Timur says that he researched Hitler’s life extensively and that gave him a lot of material to work with on his comedic book.
He says that Hitler’s book ‘Mein Kampf’ is completely unrelatable and completely crazy. However he also says that Hitler simply acted in a way that all politicians still do, in that they think they are doing what is best for the country’s society, the PRI reports.
In Timur’s book, Hitler capitalises on his charisma and makes the most of his fame.
He says Hitler had an opinion about everything and that he had some really crazy beliefs and thoughts.
Timur has had some feedback about his Hitler character being a nice guy. But Timur says that all he’s trying to get his character to do is to get back to power in whatever way he can.