Nazi and Holocaust Representations in Anglo-American Popular Culture, 1945–2020

Demsky, Jeffrey

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-79221-3

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“…68 Or can we argue, more optimistically, with Jeffrey Demsky, that this irreverent portrait of Hitler, 'spurs rather than spurns faithful memorializing'? 69 Or is it, rather, part of a loose group of works Demsky labels 'irresponsible fictions'-among which he includes certain episodes of South Park, Robot Chicken and Family Guy-that reference the Holocaust in ways that inadvertently diminish its magnitude? 70 We argue that Hipster Hitler-like many other irreverent cultural productions about traumatic moments in world history-occupies an ambiguous space that does not allow it to be boxed into a category definitively labeled responsible or irresponsible, useful or useless, fostering or, rather, risking the erasure of the memory of genocide.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Perpetrator as Punch-line: Hipster Hitler and the Ambiguity of Controversial Humor

Precup¹,

Manea²

2022

Journal of Perpetrator Research

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This article examines Hipster Hitler, a 2011 webcomic by James Carr and Archana Kumar, where the figure of Adolf Hitler is amalgamated with a generic version of a contemporary hipster, with the apparent purpose of turning both Hitler and hipsters into targets of ridicule. We engage with contemporary scholarship on the representation of Holocaust perpetrators-particularly Adolf Hitler-to examine the implications of a perpetrator of such magnitude becoming so familiar that a few strokes of the pen make him not only immediately recognizable, but also a usable go-to villain whose utilization as a means of generating humorous reactions runs the risk of separating him from his deeds. As the comic appears to emphasize the randomness and shallowness of Hipster Hitler' s horrifying deeds, we ask whether this particular comedic angle can produce valuable engagement with the mechanisms that enabled the relentless and precise work of annihilation orchestrated during Hitler' s regime.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%