"I see nossink!"

[seiberwing]

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's some deep-rooted Jewish inclination to laugh at our oppressors and our misfortunes, if only to keep from crying, maybe it's just that complex plots combined with hilarity and banter tends to be my comedic weak spot.

But I managed to find Hogan's Heroes on YouTube and I'm fangirling like a mad thing after a mere four episodes. Anyone capable of managing to hide a tank in a set of prison barracks is made of win, and Sergeant Schulz is adorable to the point that I want to give him hugs and apple turnovers.

So...yeah. Lol nazis.

Comments

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

I need to add that to my list of 'Old shows I used to watch but barely remember and therefore need to watch again'.

I find humor with Nazis to be an unusual way of combating them, as strange as it sounds. Maybe in a strange "You scared us then, but not anymore. We're now free to mock the hell out of you and we will do it" sort of way? I can't exactly explain it. I could ramble about the Hellsing fans taking Nazis way too seriously (assaulting other fans and calling them disgusting and Nazis for liking the Nazi characters - yeah, tad extreme) but I'll spare you that rant.

Here, have some more giggles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UahdsVm0GU) instead.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

*sporfles* And what a time to fade to black.

Mel Brooks, I believe, said something similar about how if you made the Nazis something laughable, something to be mocked, you made it a lot harder for anyone to buy into the mystique and support them. If we fear them there's a legacy, if we mock them they die. Or something like that, I can't find the exact quote.

As for the Hellsing fans... *shrug* I suppose it depends. I fangirl Kroenen of Hellboy, but I condone neither his fictional actions nor the real actions of his party. But there's a bit of a fine line between liking a character and liking what he was based on, and you do have to handle the subject tactfully.

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

*giggle* It makes me pout, I know. Fry and Laurie have some golden sketches out there.

It is a sensitive subject, but in all honestly, Hellsing itself isn't something to be taken very seriously. It's gotten rather cracky - vampire Nazis says enough - and Hellsing Nazis don't really have the original Nazi ideals. I like the characters because they intrigue me, and there's more to the characters than being Nazis. It's just that people blow it out of proportion sometimes. The instances I saw of people getting grief over the subject were rather ridiculous. *shakes head*

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking.

I do wonder what the Japanese fan reaction was, though. Their country's involvement with the Nazis was a bit different from ours.

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

I'm not quite sure, actually. I know the swastikas are censored in their media, but other than that I haven't heard much about that issue. I'm curious now. Hmm...

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Actually, you're thinking of Germany. Japan can still display swastikas.

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

Really? Hm, my mistake then. I do remember seeing a magazine advertisement that altered them (joined the edges so it looked more like a diamond). Though, that could have been that particular article alone.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

This is disproved by Starfish Hitler.

[vani-nessa.livejournal.com]

. . .

I genuinely have no comment. XD I've dissolved into giggles.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Oh, Japan. Never stop being you.

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

Be sure and check out the HH fanfic on FF.net.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

*blink* Is that a good suggestion or a bad one?

[mommimus-prime.livejournal.com]

Some of it is quite well-written. I never liked the show (Bob Crane gives me the heebie-jeebie) so I couldn't get into the fiction but you might like it.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I'll wait until after I get a bit more familiar with it.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

I adore Hogan's Heroes. Always did. :-)

HH is on youtube? ohhhhhh. Must go watch! You can often find it on broadcast TV too. (TV-Land -- 2 episodes 5 and 5:30) == I had to go poking around the web. I did not know this "Some of the actors, including Werner Klemperer (Klink), John Banner (Schultz), Robert Clary (LeBeau), and Leon Askin (Burkhalter), were Jews who had fled the Nazis during World War II." -- it's from the very nice Wikipedia article.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

I believe one of the Jewish Holocaust-survivor actors playing a Nazi (possibly Klemperer) stipulated that he would only act if the Nazis lost in every episode. Of course, that's not really a hard condition to meet.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

It was indeed him. :-)

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

It does take a lot of the cultural discomfort out of watching it.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

I can't even begin to imagine that aspect of it.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

For me, at least, it's like a Mel Brooks film. They're so silly and incompetant that you can't do anything but laugh at their antics, and the characters are so far away from the Nazi atrocities that their in-character actions don't reflect on them.

Then again I'm two generations removed from it.

[florentinescot.livejournal.com]

nods. I had an uncle that fought in Europe and he watched the show for that reason -- it made them look foolish and stoopid.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Someone in the YouTube comments said that too.

[revelininsanity.livejournal.com]

Man, that is FUNNY! You always make me watch things I would otherwise ignore.

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

Huzzah. ^_^