What do you get when you take a 2004 film about the last days of the Third Reich and swap the Taoiseach for der Führer? You get a hilarious parody on YouTube, but it's not the first time this particular clip has been tinkered with
'TAOISEACH, DUBLIN has gone against the treaty". With these words Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan breaks the news to Brian Cowen that the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has been defeated. An increasingly isolated figure in his Merrion Street bunker, Cowen reacts with an explosive, expletive-ridden rant against all his "enemies": "You were meant to sell the f**kin' thing, not come back here with a load of s**t excuses!" he shouts at his Cabinet. "Every last one of you betrayed me . . . the useless pricks in Labour and Fine Gael . . . that stupid hippy Patricia McKenna . . . that f**kwit Kenny who couldn't even win his own constituency. The farmers can go f**k their precious veto - I hope Mandelson screws them all."
It's a dramatic piece of footage - spoiled only by the fact that Cowen is speaking in German. The video has been turning up in many an e-mail inbox this week. Entitled Cowen's Downfall, it's a parody video from the YouTube video sharing site. Posted by someone known only as "Scrapped08", it is actually a clip from the acclaimed 2004 film Downfall/Der Untergang, which shows Hitler in his Berlin bunker reacting to the news that the war has been lost. Scrapped08 has simply placed new subtitles over the action. It is very cleverly done and can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbTCSuNSms.
Ireland has discovered the Hitler meme. This particular clip from the Downfallfilm has been used countless times in the past on YouTube to parody any situation where a person reacts with fury to some news they don't want to hear. It broke through into the mainstream last month when millions watched as the clip was adapted to feature Hillary Clinton's advisors telling her that the race against Barack Obama had been lost. In that particular version, the subtitles have Clinton blaming "those fainting sissies choking on their tofu because I voted for the Iraq war".
It is only relatively recently that this particular meme has begun to feature people other than Hitler. For the first few years, the clip was subtitled to show Hitler reacting, not to the news that the war was lost, but to his frustration as an Xbox user or the problems he was having using the Microsoft Vista operating system.
Now, though, Hitler has been taken out of the picture and replaced by any number of Brian Cowens and Hillary Clintons. One of the strongest features of the Downfallmeme is how quickly it can be adapted to current situations: one of the most popular at the moment shows Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson reacting to the news that Cristiano Ronaldo has signed to Real Madrid. Arguably the best-scripted one is the CEO of Arsenal football club reacting to manager Arsène Wenger's parsimonious transfer policy.
IF ANYTHING, the ubiquity of the Downfallmeme is a tribute to the acting talents of Swiss actor Bruno Ganz in this particular scene from the film. The German-made film was controversial on its release, not just for the fact that the Third Reich is still a sensitive subject for Germans, but because the film featured, for the first time, a German-speaking actor in the role of Hitler. The film does not make any comment about the Nazi party or the Holocaust; it simply shows the gradual disintegration of a beleaguered delusionist who cannot accept that his "dream" will never be realised. There were concerns expressed in the German media about Hitler being portrayed as a "human being" - but that is precisely the brilliance of Ganz's performance.
Previously, Hitler had been portrayed cinematically by a number of English-speaking actors (including Alec Guinness and Anthony Hopkins), but in DownfallGanz, as a native German speaker, could capture his voice perfectly and it was this aspect of the film that led reviewers to describe it as "chillingly authentic".
Now owned by Google, YouTube operates a strict copyright policy where people who post up their own videos are not allowed to use any copyrighted material - such as the Downfallfootage. It is up to the film's producers to contact YouTube to ask for all the numerous Downfallparody videos to be taken down - as they are, strictly speaking, in breach of copyright law. However, it is believed that the film's producers view all the parodies as a tribute to the original film, although sales of the DVD version of the film have not increased on the back of all the exposure it is receiving on YouTube.
The splicing together of existing footage with a new contemporary spin has now become quite an art-form on YouTube. Ever wondered what the film 300 would look like if the actors were all from the hit TV comedy The Office? You'll find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wpa2Qplm8M. On YouTube, there's something for everyone in the audience, as the media continues to eat itself.
