Meet the new face of satire as Hitler web craze goes viral

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/28/youtube.internet

The scene is Adolf Hitler's bunker. The Führer stares at a map, surrounded by fearful generals. As they deliver bad news, he removes his spectacles with a trembling hand, the fury rising in him like a volcano. Speaking guttural German, his unkempt hair flopping over his forehead, Hitler explodes in a hysterical rage about Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United. Or about his crushing defeat in the Glasgow East byelection. Or about his stolen car, his Xbox Live console, or just about anything else you can imagine.

These are the improbable scenarios sweeping YouTube and other video sharing sites on the web. In clips typically lasting about four minutes, the pictures and sound are from Downfall, the hit 2004 German film about the last days of Hitler, played by Bruno Ganz. But the subtitles bear no relation to what is being said. Instead they have been rewritten, and carefully synchronised to the action, by internet jokers evidently with time on their hands. And what started as a one-off gag has now been repeated again and again over hundreds of different subjects. Downfall spoofs are now running riot over the web, lampooning politicians, footballers, even Hitler himself.

Narratives have included Hitler fulminating about Hillary Clinton's election defeat, Barack Obama's speech in Berlin, and Labour's byelection defeat by the SNP. In one, the apoplectic dictator says he would rather watch Hermann Göring pleasure himself 'than sit through another Adam Sandler comedy'. The wittiest or most topical have a habit of going viral, as users share them with friends, who pass them on in turn. Each week brings another instalment of Hitler's rants spinning into your inbox. The Downfall spoof has become the medium of choice for armchair satirists.

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The best of these is the one of Adolf Hitler learning that Sheffield United have been relegated.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8nh7gm4jj6c