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7News star lashes out at criticism over news segment

<p>Comedian Mark Humphries has hit back at critics, responding to the criticism surrounding his satirical segment on Channel Seven's evening news. </p> <p>Many viewers responded angrily to his new gig after the first airing of <em><span id="U8416974660538MC">The 6.57pm News</span></em> that airs on Friday night, with Humphries admitting he found the controversy over the lighthearted segment "bizarre". </p> <p>“I was so stunned because I did five years at <em>7.30</em>, the ABC’s flagship current affairs program, which I think of all the shows to have a comedy segment, that’s even less likely to have one,” he told <span id="U841697466053tzC"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/stellarmag/?hl=en"><em>Stellar Magazine</em></a></span>. </p> <p>“I didn’t know people felt so strongly about the 6 o’clock news and how its integrity must be defended. And, you know, it’s the last three minutes at the end of the week before Better Homes And Gardens. I’ve said this before, but the great thing about <em>The 6.57pm News</em> is that if you want to avoid it, you know exactly what time to tune out. [The reaction] was bizarre.”</p> <p>He added: “The worst thing that was said about me, that stays with me is, ‘I look like a Ken doll gone wrong!’”</p> <p>The addition of the satirical segment came courtesy of newly appointed news director Anthony De Ceglie who said the segment “will use satire to cut through political spin and translate current affairs in the universal news language of taking the piss”.</p> <p>When the comedy segment first aired in July, many were quick to voice their disapproval. </p> <p>“This was an appalling segment … hire, rather than sack, journos,” said one on 7News’ social media.</p> <p>“It was a deplorable segment that has no place in a news bulletin,” another added. </p> <p><em>Image credits: Seven</em></p>

TV

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Baby boomers outraged by satirical post about buying a home

<p>A group of older Australians have fallen for a satirical news article about rising interest rates and home ownership, with baby boomers everywhere expressing their disapproval. </p> <p>A post from Australian satire news site <em>The Shovel</em> has gone viral, after they riled up the older demographic who likely bought their homes for a very reasonable price, while still urging millennials to try harder to get into the impossible property market. </p> <p>The headline of the joke post reads, “'But interest rates were 17 per cent in my day!' complains man who bought house for $67,000".</p> <p>The satirical article goes on to state John Bradly, a fictional 63-year-old man from Melbourne who bought his house in the 1980s, thinks young people concerned about interest rate rises “don’t know how good they have it”.</p> <p>Bradley is quoted as saying he had to save up “for weeks” for a house deposit and that he only had his salary to rely on which was “only about one-fifth of the value of the average home back then”.</p> <p>“It took me more than seven years to pay off my first house. Seven years! I was practically in my thirties by the time I was debt free. Can you imagine? Being beholden to a bank for your entire twenties! I’m pretty sure no-one in their twenties these days has to go through that,” the joke article stated.</p> <p>The article finishes with another jab at older Australians who are making it even harder for first home buyers by owning multiple properties.</p> <p>“Try managing tenants across 11 investment properties scattered around Melbourne and Sydney during a global pandemic. That’s what hard work is,” Bradley was quoted as saying.</p> <p>Despite the almost palpable satirical tone, dozens of Aussies were convinced the article was legitimate, flocking to comment that the article made them feel personally attacked.</p> <p>Even general manager of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Phil Gould, got caught up in discourse, urging the "news" site to do more research before publishing their articles.</p> <p>“Average full-time wage in 1990 was $566.80. Try to do just a little research,” he wrote, sharing a link to the satire article on Twitter. </p> <p>His followers were quick to point out that he had been duped by a fake news post, while others chose to highlight how he was only proving the point the article was making.</p> <p>Gould was not the only one who took the post seriously, with angry baby boomers sharing their stories of hardship when it came to buying their first home. </p> <p>“When my wife and I bought a 2 bed duplex in 90/91?, it cost us $108,000. Interest rates were 17 per cent. $108,000 was a LOT of $$ back then,” one person wrote.</p> <p>“We sacrificed a LOT. We started modestly as well.”</p> <p>Another person claimed that, while they bought their first house in the late 1980s for just over $71,000, but added they didn’t get things like paid parental leave and subsidised child care.</p> <p>“And yes interest rates at 17-18 per cent scared us,” the commenter said.</p> <p>Despite the outrage over the post, many people pointed out that despite the article being of a satirical nature, there could be an element of truth behind the sarcasm. </p> <p>One person said, "It’s getting harder and harder to tell the actual “news” content now", while another wrote, "I thought this was supposed to be a satirical publication".</p> <p><em>Image credits: The Shovel / Getty Images </em></p>

Real Estate

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Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker prize for Sri Lankan political satire, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

<p>Sri Lankan novelist Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida.</p> <p>The win couldn’t come at a better time for Sri Lanka, a country once more engaged in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/10/06/sri-lanka-economic-crisis-protests-imf/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">political and economic instability</a>, as it suffers through one of the world’s worst economic crises, with soaring inflation, food and fuel shortages, and low supplies of foreign reserves. And of course, the government was overthrown in July, after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled following mass protests.</p> <p>Karunatilaka said in his acceptance speech:</p> <blockquote> <p>My hope for Seven Moons is this; that in the not-too-distant future, 10 years, as long as it takes, Sri Lanka […] has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work.</p> </blockquote> <h2>Political black comedy</h2> <p>Karunatilaka’s novel is extraordinary – and hard to pin down. It is at once a black comedy about the afterlife, a murder mystery whodunit, and a political satire set against the violent backdrop of the late-1980s Sri Lankan civil war. It is also a story of love and redemption.</p> <p>Malinda “Maali” Kabalana, a closeted war photographer, wakes up dead in what seems to be a celestial waiting room. The setting will be familiar to many who’ve spent time in Colombo (as I have – it’s where my husband’s family is from). We open in a busy, bureaucratic office, filled with confusion, noise, a propensity against queuing – and a healthy dose of “gallows” humour. In other words, Maali is in some sort of purgatory.</p> <p>Maali soon discovers he has seven days – seven moons – to solve his own murder. This isn’t easy – he is interrupted by sardonic ghosts (often with grudges, questionable motives, and a tendency towards extreme chattiness), the violent reality of war-torn Colombo, and piecing together his memories of who he was.</p> <p>He also has seven moons to lead his official girlfriend and his secret boyfriend to a cache of photographs, taken over time, which document the horror of the war – and incriminate local and foreign governments.</p> <p>Karunatilaka’s subject matter and plot highlight, question and explore Sri Lanka’s legacy – and its continued, difficult relationship with its civil war, which spanned 1983 to 2009, though the reverberations continue. And his novel’s provocative, intimate, second-person style implicates us – the readers.</p> <p>Karunatilaka has mastered his craft as a novelist. He never once wavers from a second-person perspective that might be unwieldy (perhaps even gimmicky) in a lesser writer’s hands. The novel tells us, “Don’t try and look for the good guys, ‘cause there ain’t none”.</p> <p>It realises a combined responsibility for the tragedy of that 25-year civil war, in which the country’s colonial history is also implicated. British colonialists brought Tamil workers from South India to Sri Lanka, to work as indentured labourers on their coffee, tea and rubber plantations. Their descendants’ fight for an independent Tamil state was a strong component of the civil war.</p> <h2>Diffusing violence with humour</h2> <p>As a novelist and lover of second-person narration and a long-time follower of Karuntailaka’s accomplished work, I couldn’t be more delighted by this Booker win.</p> <p>I first came across Karunatilaka through his debut novel, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/chinaman-9780099555681" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinaman</a>, which was handed to me by my sister-in-law several years ago on a family visit to Colombo. That book taught me about cricket, but it also taught me the sardonic brilliance of Sri Lankan humour.</p> <p>Karunatilaka once again uses humour to great effect in The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – to diffuse confronting moments of violence, to engage his reader, and for pure enjoyment. This novel follows a murder victim through a bloody civil war – and it’s laugh-out-loud funny.</p> <p>It’s also a tighter, more focused book than Chinaman: here is an author in control of his craft and what he wants to say with it. The Booker judges, too, praised the “scope and the skill, the daring, the audacity and hilarity” of the book.</p> <p>Karunatilaka’s winning novel took time to write. Ten years have passed since Chinaman. His skilful use of craft to tell this complicated story is testament to the idea that good books take the time they need: something that all authors know but publishers are not always willing to accept. However, Karunatilaka has been busy in that ten years, not just writing literary fiction, but writing for children – and having a family. The 47-year-old is now married with two kids.</p> <p>Karunatilaka is only the second Sri Lankan novelist to have won the Booker Prize. (The first was Michael Ondaatje in 1992 for The English Patient.) But last year, his countryman Anuk Arudpragasam was also <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/anuk-arudpragasam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shortlisted</a>, for <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Anuk-Arudpragasam-Passage-North-9781783786961" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Passage North</a>, another accomplished novel set in the aftermath of the civil war.</p> <p>I’m excited by what this means for Sri Lankan authors and the Sri Lankan publishing scene. Here is a country with stories to tell and enormous skill to tell them with: let’s hope this leads to more Sri Lankan novels achieving wide readership, success and deserved acclaim.</p> <p><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/shehan-karunatilaka-wins-booker-prize-for-sri-lankan-political-satire-the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida-192722" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></p> <p><em>Image: thebookerprizes.com</em></p>

Books

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Trevor Noah brought a new perspective to TV satire - as well as a whole new audience

<p>After seven years of hosting <a href="https://www.cc.com/shows/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Show on Comedy Central</a>, a hit comedy show produced in the US but with global reach, South African born comedian Trevor Noah has announced <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/29/entertainment/trevor-noah-daily-show/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plans to leave</a> and focus on his stand-up comedy. During his tenure as host of the political satire series, which he took over from the revered <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/jon-stewart/?sh=35f2ad793fbc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jon Stewart</a>, Noah has offered important takes on issues in the US – and the world.</p> <p>Considering that the late-night television satire scene in the US remains <a href="https://theconversation.com/trevor-noah-is-leaving-the-daily-show-how-did-he-fare-191699" target="_blank" rel="noopener">populated by white men</a>, Noah has offered unique “black” African insights into issues that affect black Americans. He has also been lucid in talking about issues that have an effect on Africa and Africans. Noah’s knowledge of Africa and African politics has helped him demonstrate that there are few differences between America, lauded as one of the greatest democracies in the world, and global south countries that Trump once called “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcMFmoTCdcU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shithole</a>” states.</p> <p>Noah’s approach attracted more African Americans than was the case during Stewart’s tenure. A 2017 study <a href="https://decider.com/2017/10/16/trevor-noah-tds-nielsen-ratings-analysis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by Nielsen Media Research</a> showed that during Stewart’s final season, 84.5% of the viewers were white. Noah lost 40% of the white viewers and gained 16% more black viewers than his predecessor.</p> <p>He spoke with great clarity on issues such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-lives-matter-protests-are-shaping-how-people-understand-racial-inequality-178254" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Lives Matter</a> protests against racism, discrimination and racial inequity experienced by black people, the turbulent Trump presidency, the rise in white supremacy and the global COVID pandemic. By commenting on these different issues, he was able to bring home the inequalities that continue to be seen and experienced in the US.</p> <p>Noah has defied the odds, offered a youthful, “black” perspective and drawn in a new audience. He will be a hard act to follow - which is what people said of his predecessor.</p> <h2>Noah’s particular past</h2> <p>Growing up and coming of age in South Africa has undoubtedly shaped Noah’s worldview. In his book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29780253-born-a-crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Born a Crime</a> (2016), and in his numerous stand-up comedy shows, he set out what it meant growing up in apartheid South Africa, with its white-minority rule and policies of racial segregation. Because his father was white and his mother black, he could not have a normal childhood in which he could grow up in the same home as both his parents. It was legally impossible. the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv01538/04lv01828/05lv01829/06lv01884.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Immorality Act</a> prohibited sex between people of different races.</p> <p>Noah drew on his experiences in South Africa in his role as chief anchor of The Daily Show. In particular he was able to show the striking parallels between present day America and apartheid-era South Africa. He explains this reality in one of the <a href="https://www.ccn.com/trevor-noah-frightening-us-south-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">episodes</a> of the show at the height of the global coronavirus pandemic:</p> <blockquote> <p>Living in this period in America, as much as I hate to say it, a lot of the things that I’m seeing are similar to what we experienced in South Africa. Mass unemployment, a government that doesn’t seem to have the best interests of the people at heart. People who are getting angrier and angrier.</p> </blockquote> <p>He explained in another <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FPrJxTvgdQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">episode</a> of the show during the run-up to the 2016 US elections that</p> <blockquote> <p>as an African, there’s just something familiar about Trump that makes me feel at home.</p> </blockquote> <p>He went on to talk about striking resemblances between former US president Donald Trump and several former African presidents such as Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Idi Amin of Uganda and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.</p> <h2>Comedy and political satire</h2> <p>I argue in a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-81969-9_3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">book chapter</a> on political satire that the comic offers important ways of criticising those in power. During his tenure at The Daily Show, Noah has used comedy and satire to discuss diverse pressing contemporary issues, in the US and globally. As he has <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-08-27/daily-show-trevor-noah-emmys-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>I believe in the importance of jokes. I will never lose that. I always tell people, ‘Jokes are what made me’. That’s how I see the world.</p> </blockquote> <p>Before joining The Daily Show, Noah was an established stand-up comedian. In South Africa, he was known for satirising Jacob Zuma during his presidency for corruption and his role in state capture.</p> <p>Comedy has allowed him to deal with difficult subjects in a lighthearted way. He has <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/29/entertainment/trevor-noah-daily-show/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a> that:</p> <blockquote> <p>I’ve loved trying to find a way to make people laugh, even when the stories are particularly s—, even on the worst days.</p> </blockquote> <p>Noah has infused the comic into his anchoring of The Daily Show and managed to tackle controversial topics in a cheerful yet hard-hitting way.</p> <h2>Poking holes in American exceptionalism</h2> <p>Being a foreigner in the US, Noah has the necessary distance to offer sobering analyses of current affairs in that country. Through his examination of the Trump presidency and the Black Lives Matter movement, he has shown that the idea of America being “exceptional” is an illusion.</p> <p>At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in the US, he took to The Daily Show to give a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4Bg8mu2aM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grim yet poignant monologue</a> about race in the US. Noah traced the chain of events that went beyond the killing of George Floyd, a black man who was suffocated to death on the side of a road by a group of white policemen, to show the precarity of black lives in contemporary America.</p> <p>The monologue is sharp, knowledgeable and nuanced in its explanation of what was happening in the US. He grounded it on historical events to show that nothing was new. The US was not exceptional. The US democracy was as imperfect as that of the many countries that it had preached to for many years.</p> <p>It has taken a late-night host from outside the US to point to the failings of the US and its democracy.</p> <h2>Late night TV without Noah</h2> <p>The late-night circuit will be different without Noah, the only black and African host of a late-night show in the US. Because of his intimate knowledge of global popular culture, he has had a youthful viewership.</p> <p>His peers do not have the same perspective or viewership. If Noah replacing Stewart was seen as a daunting exercise, filling the shoes of Noah might prove to be even more challenging.</p> <p><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/trevor-noah-brought-a-new-perspective-to-tv-satire-as-well-as-a-whole-new-audience-191800" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></p> <p><em>Image: Facebook</em></p>

TV

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Britain’s Channel 4 announce satirical Prince Andrew musical

<p dir="ltr">Britain’s Channel 4 network has announced they will be producing a satirical musical with Prince Andrew at the centre. </p> <p dir="ltr">The UK broadcaster said the 60 minute musical satire will detail the fall of the disgraced royal and his disastrous 2019 interview discussing his ties with late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.</p> <p dir="ltr">The <em>BBC Newsnight</em> interview, widely regarded as a public relations catastrophe for the Duke of York, will be "re-imagined” as part of the program, but with a sarcastic twist. </p> <p dir="ltr">Comedian Kieran Hodgson will lead a cast of comics in <em>Prince Andrew: The Musical</em>, a program described as a "satirical send-up of the life and times" of the duke set to a musical score.</p> <p dir="ltr">The show will be part of a 40th anniversary season of shows called <em>Truth or Dare</em> for Channel 4, which launched in 1982.</p> <p dir="ltr">It has not yet been announced exactly when it will air.</p> <p dir="ltr">At the time of the interview, critics tore into Prince Andrew for his lack of empathy for the abused victims of Epstein, who killed himself in prison in August 2019.</p> <p dir="ltr">Ever since the interview, the Duke of York has remained embroiled in controversy surrounding his potential involvement with Epstein. </p> <p dir="ltr">As a result, he was stripped of his military titles and his use of "his royal highness" in early 2022. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

Music

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See Meryl Streep’s new presidential look in new satire

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After playing characters from every walk of life, Meryl Streep’s latest role sees her take on her most powerful role yet as the President of the United States of America.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Adam McKay’s upcoming satire </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Don’t Look Up</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Streep plays President Janie Orlean, who presides over the country as an asteroid is on a collision-course with Earth — though she seems pretty unfazed by the entire scenario.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><img style="width: 0px; height: 0px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845276/streep1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/88886145dcea40e696c841fd3b1f9d98" /></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">An exclusive image of Streep as President Janie Orlean. Image: @empiremagazine / Twitter</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“[Streep’s character] is very concerned about the poll numbers, very concerned about the politics, loves her own celebrity,” McKay told </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://ew.com/movies/dont-look-up-first-look-photos-teaser-trailer/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Entertainment Weekly</span></a></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “She’s a hybrid of all the ridiculous leaders that we’ve had for the past ten, 20, 30 years.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Streep is one of the many stars that have joined </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Don’t Look Up</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence in the starring roles, and Cate Blanchett, Ron Perlman, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis among the cast.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Following the release of the </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/entertainment/movies/don-t-look-up-teaser-trailer-released" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">teaser trailer</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in September, more stills from the film have since emerged — including some of Streep in full presidential action.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">See the teaser trailer below.</span></p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SL9aJcqrtnw" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Images: Netflix</span></em></p>

Movies

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Jojo Rabbit: Hitler humour and a child's eye view of war make for dark satire

<p>Jojo Rabbit is not Disney Studios’ first foray into Hitler parody. In 1943, it produced <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L90smU0SOcQ">der Fuehrer’s Face</a> – an anti-Nazi film inside Donald Duck’s nightmares.</p> <p>Now, Disney is the Australian distributor of Jojo Rabbit, a story of a young boy whose imaginary friend (and buffoonish life coach) is Adolf Hitler.</p> <p>In this dark satire, from the Polynesian-Jewish-New Zealand director Taika Waititi who brought us <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4698684/">Hunt for the Wilderpeople</a>, Nazi Germany is in its waning days. The Germans have all but lost the second world war but 10-year-old Johannes “Jojo” Betzel (Roman Griffin Davis) believes he, and he alone, will be the Aryan hero to turn the tide.</p> <p>The boy’s imaginary friend, a hilariously incompetent Hitler (played by Waititi in blue contact lenses and the trademark moustache), cheers him on. When asked to kill a rabbit to get into the Hitler Youth, Jojo baulks, though he does almost manage to kill himself in a grenade stunt.</p> <p>“You’re still the bestest, most loyal little Nazi I’ve ever met,” the fantasy Fuhrer enthuses.</p> <p><strong>Through children’s eyes</strong></p> <p>Themes and images of children have often been central in films exploring WWII. Steven Spielberg famously used <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUJ187mkMq8">“the girl in red coat”</a> to create a powerfully moving symbol of innocence in <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2017/03/31/schindlers-list-one-most-visually-powerful-war-films-ever-made">Schindler’s List</a> (1993).</p> <p>Immediately after the war, a stream of films, including Roberto Rosselini’s <a href="https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1358-germany-year-zero-the-humanity-of-the-defeated%22%22">Germany Year Zero</a> (1948), Gerhard Lamprecht’s <a href="https://ecommerce.umass.edu/defa/film/6025">Somewhere in Berlin</a> (1946), and Fred Zinnemann’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu8h7OyX8-Y">The Search</a> (1948) looked at wartime trauma through injuries acquired by children.</p> <p>Like Jojo’s grenade mishap, their wounds were permanent.</p> <p>In war films, children’s perspectives don’t diminish the ghastliness of war. Quite the contrary. When war and its pervasive horror spills over from the battlefield and intrudes on their youth, viewers are appalled at its spread.</p> <p>Containing that disease of war, curing it even, is where Waititi’s takedown of fascist group-think truly begins.</p> <p>How will Jojo escape the brainwash army of Reichswehr propaganda parrots like Rebel Wilson’s Fräulein?</p> <p>There are several steps. The first one for Jojo is finding out his mother has been hiding a Jewish girl in the attic.</p> <p>Scarlett Johansson gives an enchanting performance as a single mum who tries to keep the embers of humanity and love in Jojo’s heart alive as he gets lost in Nazi doctrines of vile anti-Semitism.</p> <p>Jojo starts falling for Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie), the hideaway in his attic, as her humanity – and his pre-pubescent hormones – triumph over fascist indoctrination. Through Jojo’s eyes, we see Elsa turn from monster into human as he comes back from the brink of fanatic hatred.</p> <p>Waititi hides that innocent, simple love story under slapstick and a ton of special effects. The latter don’t always work. And some of the jokes fall flat.</p> <p>But what works is the message that Jojo is both manipulated and self-manipulating. His Nazi hate is a cage of his own making, and Elsa is the key to unlocking it. She teaches him that empathy for those who we think are different from us is powerful.</p> <p><iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTqd4yNFuSw?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><strong>Irreverent or irresponsible?</strong></p> <p>Hitler comedies have a long history. In 1940, Charlie Chaplin released <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVLQ8lNd1Pk">The Great Dictator</a>. Mel Brooks created <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brkp2VhzdDI">The Producers</a> in 1968.</p> <p>German filmmakers Dani Levy (<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780568/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">My Führer – The Really Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler</a>, 2007) and David Wnendt (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylstybS6rqw&amp;list=PL-2fuUy0f-jOu3bV_Bj1Uh-SbTO8OCK1A&amp;index=2&amp;t=0s">Look Who’s Back</a>, 2015) strived to find the right balance between comedy and drama.</p> <p>Like Waititi, those filmmakers experienced how mining sombre Holocaust themes and hateful iconography for the ridiculous splits public reactions along extreme lines. The critics bemoaned that Levy committed only halfheartedly to a funny Hitler, making the film the worst thing a comedy can be: too harmless.</p> <p>Wnendt faced another issue. He intercut his film with hidden camera footage of Germans reacting to the lead actor dressed as Hitler. People thought this was too much realism.</p> <p>Waititi <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-09/jojo-rabbit-review-and-taika-waititi-on-making-comic-hitler/11721074">says</a> he didn’t look at these forerunners and didn’t do any research on Hitler. He looked to literature instead.</p> <p>Jojo Rabbit uses the masterful dramatic novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25641300-caging-skies?from_search=true&amp;qid=ev2DKS7scE&amp;rank=1">Caging Skies</a> by New Zealand-Belgian author Christine Leuens as source material. The book doesn’t have the same generous scoops of comedy and tragedy found in Ladislav Fuks’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/725311.Mr_Theodore_Mundstock">Mr. Theodore Mundstock</a>, or in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18582851-the-nazi-and-the-barber">The Nazi and the Barber</a> by Edgar Hilsenrath.</p> <p>It’s all the more reason to recognise what Waititi has tried to accomplish. He had to negotiate between a book adaptation, Holocaust memory, and Hollywood.</p> <p>Commenting on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJSwD_17qjY">his motivation</a> for making the film, Watiti, whose mother is Jewish, said: “I just want people to be more tolerant and spread more love and less hate”.<em><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></em></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/benjamin-nickl-594248">Benjamin Nickl</a>, Lecturer in International Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/jojo-rabbit-hitler-humour-and-a-childs-eye-view-of-war-make-for-dark-satire-128622">original article</a>.</em></p>

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