Hitler as Comedy

Rating: Null/10 (22 November 2002)

First, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder played their characters with genius. "Over the top", for sure, but in an exceedingly entertaining way. I'm surprised when folks criticize their portrayals and go on to praise Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. "Over the top" is Mel Brooks' endearing style. So, if you laughed at Frau Blucher, Igor, Mongo, Hedley LaMarr and Lili Von Shtupp, you'll be right at home with Bialystock and Bloom.
Second, its easy to understand that some folks have a difficult time with Hitler/Nazis as comedy. For the rest of us, comedy is born from adversity. Mel Brooks understands that laughter and ridicule are the best ways to disarm your enemy's ability to continue to terrorize you. Even in WWII, it was deemed wise to trivialize Hitler in political cartoons. The Producers gives us a more frivolous version of Chaplin's Great Dictator. "Survivor humor" is, and always has been, everywhere. Hitler has no special reprieve from ridicule. On the contrary, as Franz Liebkind points out, laughing at Hitler is a disgrace to his memory. And that should be good enough for all of us.
For those of you that enjoy a funny movie with wonderful acting, I highly recommend this flick. I just watched it again and it has weathered the years, like it's brothers Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, without becoming "dated".
As an aside to the commentators that were personally offended by this movie because of their direct connection to the horrors of WWII, I was at the World Trade Center on 9/11 and I can't imagine anything funny about that day and the events surrounding it. Nevertheless, something tells me that, someday, someone with find something humorous in that disaster and, maybe, that's not such a bad thing.