he fell off a tower

Just read Rudolph (son of Werner) Herzog's book on jokes in the Third Reich, DEAD FUNNY, which isn't bad. Skilfully translated, too, though there's probably no way to make light comic rhymes sound anything other than trite in another language, so the inclusion of long passages of satirical verse falls flat.  Properly scathing about attempts to promote gentle jibes as serious dissent after the war, if a bit heavy-handed at points.  I think, at this stage, it can be safely assumed we all know the Nazis were total cunts.

One point the book misses is that the majority of jokes told by Jews about their persecution were recycled versions of jokes originally told about Tsarist Russia.  (For instance, the one recounted in the FT review.)  Anything that's non-specific to Nazi regulations or the camps was almost certainly set in Russia originally; I've got US compilations of Jewish jokes from the 1920s and 30s including most of them.

There's a good section on the BBC's German service's use of satire; somebody should really probe the archives and put together a compilation of this stuff.  Herzog handles the bullying sneer of Nazi humor (not unreminiscent of the worst parts of the Chinese media) well, typified by Roland Freisler, who achieved the remarkable feat of being particularly revolting for a Nazi.  (Freisler has a small part in Conspiracy, which is, I think, the best movie about the Nazi mentality and bureaucracy ever made.)

Nazi actions are, at times, the funniest things in the book. For instance, when a circus performer taught his apes to give the Hitler salute, a law was passed forbidding apes from doing so on pain of death. The compilation of caricatures of Hitler from around the world, with hysterically explanatory notes as to how wrong the cartoonists are, is also good. 

Comments

[a3t]

Is it fair to dismiss gentle gibes, though? I'm living in a place with a pretty foul government at the moment. Foul by European managed democracy standards, at least, and while you feel sustained outrage at the beginning, eventually you have to let it slide for the sake of your mood and ability to sustain normal social relationships. Gentle gibes - with a hard edge of contempt - are what remain, the reminder that these people are a bunch of despicable, malign buffoons, but that, for now, there's nothing you can do about them.

It's pretty meaningless to look for a contemporary comparison to life in the Third Reich, but given that emigration is never an easy option, and that your life has to carry on even as many other people's end, I can believe your forms of protest are going to look increasingly feeble as your reserves of fury become exhausted.

[bert]

He's a friend of a friend, and I met him a couple of times. Thoroughly nice guy from what I remember. At the time, about 10 years ago, he was very into his magic, and he showed me how to do the David Blaine levitation trick. (Hint: actual levitation not involved)