If you are not aware of all internet traditions, you may not know about the “Downfall” parodies. You’re missing out. The New York Times explained the phenomon back in October 2008:
On YouTube, we’re in a bunker, and the enemies are always, always closing in. The ceilings are low. The air is stifling. A disheveled leader is delusional.
This is the premise of more than 100 videos on the Web — the work of satirists who for years have been snatching video and audio from “Downfall,” the 2004 German movie of Hitler’s demise, and doctoring it to tell a range of stories about personal travails and world politics. By adding new English-language subtitles, they transform the movie’s climactic scene, in which Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz) rails against his enemies and reluctantly faces his defeat, into the generic story of a rabid blowhard brought low.
The problem for “Downfall” artistes, however, is that not everyone likes being parodied, and the targets of such mocking (and the studio that owns the rights to “Downfall”) sometimes send takedown notices to YouTube under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Parody, of course, is protected by the fair use doctrine in copyright law, but that usually doesn’t stop YouTube from following through with the takedowns. It’s cheaper and easier to just take down everything that the site receives a DMCA notice for than to review individual claims. Now the heroic Electronic Frontier Foundation has produced the ultimate meta-Downfall parody, in which Bruno Ganz’ Hitler tries to send takedown notices for all the Downfall parodies. The result is amusing and informative:
