Downfall, or Der Untergang in German, is a film detailing the last days of World War II in April and May of 1945. It's an often uncomfortable portrayal of a dictator facing the end; of the war, of his beliefs, of his life. Unfathomably a meme around a particular scene from Downfall has propagated on the InterWebs like wildfire.

It takes the German-spoken video of Hitler being told all hope is lost but places English subtitles over the top suggesting what is being said. There are thousands of these videos on YouTube, and what follows are 10 of the funniest featuring technology. Anyone offended by the subject matter should refrain from watching these videos, many of which are NSFW. It's important to remember these parodies aren't about the regime or the war but about the over-the-top reactions people have to everyday stuff that shouldn't actually matter.

Hitler Reacts To Email Scam

Most of us have seen an email scam before. Even the best spam filters in the world cannot catch every single piece of trash that tries to make it into our inboxes. Thankfully most of us are sensible enough to ignore such attempts to squeeze money out of individuals who can barely afford it. But not Hitler, it would seem.

Hitler Reacts To Twitter Outage

Twitter thankfully stays up most of the time these days, but there was a time when regular users of the site would see the fail whale a little too often. If it was bad in 2009 just imagine how terrible it was in 1945. I love the misspelled reference to Robert Scoble, who has since decamped from Twitter to Google+.

Hitler Reacts To Facebook IPO

Facebook held its IPO in May 2012, and the opening share price of $38 was deemed too high by investors. The price hasn't yet recovered to those giddy heights, and all those who piled their money in to the company must now sit tight and play the long game. Including Hitler who, according to this video, owns a nice set of Facebook shares.

Hitler Reacts To Wii U Announcement

We don't yet know whether the Wii U will be a roaring success or a pitiful failure. Nintendo's showing at E3 2012 was respectable enough, but when the company first showed off its new games console to the world in 2011 reactions were mostly negative. Hitler wasn't impressed, especially by the tablet controller.

Hitler Reacts To The Original iPad

When Apple unveiled the iPad in 2010, reactions ranged from people declaring this to be the best thing since sliced bread and people wondering what the fuss was about a big, fat iPod. Hitler takes pot shots at Apple for the lack of multitasking and the omission of a camera. And rightly so. Perhaps he held out for the iPad 2 instead.

Hitler Reacts To WoW Hacking

World of Warcraft players tend to be somewhat addicted to the game. It's natural, after all they're paying for the pleasure of doing so. This means when they get hacked and have all their Warcraft worldly possessions sold they don't react well. Hitler spent two years building his collection, only to lose it in an instant of carelessness.

Hitler Reacts To SOPA

SOPA was the short-lived, ill-advised bill that came before the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011. Thankfully it was rejected, helped by the blackout of well-known websites led by Wikipedia to raise awareness. Hitler saw straight through the bill, realizing it gave the authorities far too much power over the Internet.

Hitler Reacts To Rickrolling

Hands up who here hasn't been Rickrolled at least once. If you haven't then I can only assume you're new to the Web, as everyone who was present online a few years ago saw Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up more times than is healthy. Even Hitler was Rickrolled from the future, and he wasn't too happy about it either.

Hitler Reacts To Trololo

Another meme within a meme here with Hitler being condemned to a future listening to Mr. Trololo (AKA Eduard Khil) singing his lovely little ditty from now until the end of time. The Russians were naturally blamed for piping the song into the bunker in order to send everybody mad. I must admit I'm not sure how much of the song I could take.

Hitler Reacts To Hitler Reaction Video Takedowns

Last but not least we have a moment of introspection. All of these clips use a scene from a copyrighted film, but most people rightly assumed parodies would count as fair use. Unfortunately Constantin Film, the producer of Downfall, tried to remove all of the videos in 2010. Until common sense prevailed. But not before Hitler ranted about it. Fittingly.

Conclusions

I personally find the combination of a scene from a deadly serious film coupled with subtitled rants about meaningless subjects funny, and I hope you do too. German speakers may struggle to ignore the actual dialog, which if listened to will no doubt remove all traces of humor. If you have seen another Downfall parody video related to technology that you particularly enjoyed then feel free to link to it in the comments section below.

In order to give the above clips some context here is a link to the original scene from the film. Click the CC button in the bottom right of the video to enable subtitles. I've actually seen Downfall myself and it's a fascinating film with a brilliant performance by Bruno Ganz. It's far from a comedy though, so perhaps it's best to laugh at these parodies instead.