Subtitle parodies

*“Mostly parodies of foreign movies/dubs with wrong subtitles.”*
―CreativityTheEmotion's channel description
**"Subtitle parodies"** is a term created by CreativityTheEmotion as a common label for parodies of video footage in a foreign language, such as films, dubs or online videos, usually uploaded to YouTube, which add their own subtitles to them, completely changing the setting and/or tone of said videos. All of CreativityTheEmotion's parodies on YouTube since the creation of the term feature "Subtitle Parody" as a tag.

## Themes and aspects

The two dominant forms of subtitle parodies are *Downfall* parodies, prominently featuring Adolf Hitler, and Angry German Kid parodies, prominently featuring Leopold Slikk. However, in addition to this, many offshoots of *Downfall* parodies, originally intended to take place in a unified "parody universe", have been created, and occasionally, short clips unrelated to *Downfall* or AGK may be used for a similar parody style, as seen on the website Caption Generator.

*Inside Out* parodies also have originated as an offshoot of *Downfall* parodies, but unlike the "parody themes" as referred to by the Unterganger community, they were not intended to fit in the universe, rather creating their own distinct universe. Nevertheless, the community has accepted Riley Andersen as a crossover character, therefore blurring the line as to whether *Inside Out* parodies constitute a parody theme of *Downfall* or their own community, despite the origins.

As both the source videos and their parodies can be virtually anything, it is hard to say anything meaningful about subtitle parodies as a whole. This is exemplified by the *Downfall*, AGK and *Inside Out* parodies having distinct mentalities behind them, largely pertaining to the source clips, even if a parodist can invent further beyond the clips available to them.

### List of parody themes

* *Downfall* parodies (since ca. 2006; see also Unterganger community)
* Angry German Kid parodies (since ca. 2008)
* *Inside Out* parodies (2015-2020)
* Putin parodies (since 2022)

## Controversies

Subtitle parodies always share a troublesome relationship with their copyright owners. While Norman Kochanowski, the copyright owner for the *Echter Gangster* clips, has done little to interact with AGK parodists, Constantin Film, the copyright owners for *Downfall*, ruled that the parodies constitute copyright infringement and issued their takedowns since at least 2010; though, later on, they relaxed their stance and simply monetize *Downfall* parodies for themselves. In addition, as the European Parliament passed the infamous "Article 13" (primarily because of European copyright owners, including film and music syndicates), the future of subtitle parodies in all forms has been significantly threatened, even outside the European Union (to which the law would apply).

Creators of *Downfall* parodies also get a lot of criticism simply because of the subject matter that they use; because the stories are so heavily centered on Nazi Germany and its political and military leaders, the creators have often been branded as neo-Nazis, even though some have repeatedly made it clear that they are not idolizing the actual historical figures, nor do they share the political views of Nazi Germany.

## External links

* Gag Sub on TV Tropes; subtitle parodies constitute a part of this trope

### Wikis dedicated to other parody themes

* Hitler Parody Wiki
* Angry German Kid Wiki