Downfall (Der Untergang) is a 2004 German war film, depicting the final ten days of Adolf Hitler’s reign over Nazi Germany in 1945.
The movie served as the inspiration for a virtual tidal wave of “Downfall parodies”. One scene in the film, the one in which Hilter finally realizes the war is truly lost and then launches into a furious tirade has become the favorite for 99% of all parody videos.
The original German audio is retained but the subtitles have been changed so Hitler and his lackeys now seem to react to some current setback, sport, politics or culture of every day life.
We have selected 5 of the most funny ones we could find.
Hitler falls for email scam
We have all seen an email scam before and even the best spam filters in the world cannot catch every single one. But most of us are smart enough to ignore such attempts to get ripped off, but not Hitler, it would seem.
Hitler’s Oktoberfest Downfall
Hitler wanted to go to the oktober fest but his favorite beer has run out quickly.
Hitler is fed up with all the Hitler rants!
Hitler, as “Downfall” producer, orders a DMCA takedown
Hitler decides he has had enough of the parody images and wants DCMA takedown notices sent to everybody who hosts them. All does not go according to plan…
Hitler reacts to the Hitler parodies being removed from YouTube
Last but not least we have a moment of introspection. All of these clips use a scene from a copyrighted film, but it was assumed it would count as fair use. Unfortunately Constantin Film, the producer of Downfall, tried to remove all of the videos in 2010. Until common sense prevailed. But not before Hitler ranted about it.