The Downfall meme began in 2006, just a couple years after the movie was first released. In the most commonly parodied scene, Hitler is informed by his generals that Felix Steiner’s counterassault on the Soviets never occurred; he then orders all but four generals out of the room and proceeds to rage about the situation.
YouTube user DReaperF4 created the first spoof of the video, with subtitles about Hitler’s resentment toward the lack of new features in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X Demo. Since then, over a thousand similar subtitle spoofs have been created, focusing on such banal tragedies as not being accepted to Hogwarts, finding out the iPod touch does not have a camera, getting banned from Xbox Live, or one of my personal favorites, finding out that Santa isn’t real.
In 2009 and 2010, Constantin Film, the producers of the movie, began using YouTube’s Content ID filter to remove the Hitler finds out… videos from teh interwebs (including the original by DReaperF4). This did not sit well with many Fair Use advocates, leading to the creation of several meta parodies about Hitler reacting to the takedowns.
As Alex Leavitt points out, the bunker scene follows a fairly straightforward narrative:
– actor sets up situation, which superior seems to understand
– superior confirms that he understands
– actor(s) introduce problem that contradicts superior’s understanding
– superior suggests his frustration in extended silence
– superior explodes in confused anger
– superior realizes he cannot overcome problem
– superior accepts problem (Source)
And so the stage is set for my own Downfall parody, “Hitler finds out he is in Dunham 220”.
Basically all the background information you need to know is as follows: Brad Rosen brings cupcakes to class. Brad Rosen does not like Dunham 220 because it is hot, the administration won’t give him fans to cool it down, and there are very few outlets so he has to bring his own power strips to class. Brad Rosen finds church bells ringing during class awfully annoying. Brad Rosen has an odd penchant for whoopie pies.
Yale Law Tech 