Godwin the EQC

Written By: - Date published: 4:43 pm, June 24th, 2011 - 12 comments
Categories: humour, Satire, video, youtube - Tags: , , ,

Sometimes you have to simply start from 1.0 for Godwin’s Law. This pretty much applies to anything re-subtitled from the movie “Der Untergang” (english “Downfall”).

The latest one that I have seen is this side splitting rendition of exactly what has been going on inside the EQC operation in Christchurch.

The Guardian had a good article on the reuse of Downfall in 2008.

The scene is Adolf Hitler’s bunker. The Führer stares at a map, surrounded by fearful generals. As they deliver bad news, he removes his spectacles with a trembling hand, the fury rising in him like a volcano. Speaking guttural German, his unkempt hair flopping over his forehead, Hitler explodes in a hysterical rage about Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Manchester United. Or about his crushing defeat in the Glasgow East byelection. Or about his stolen car, his Xbox Live console, or just about anything else you can imagine.

These are the improbable scenarios sweeping YouTube and other video sharing sites on the web. In clips typically lasting about four minutes, the pictures and sound are from Downfall, the hit 2004 German film about the last days of Hitler, played by Bruno Ganz. But the subtitles bear no relation to what is being said. Instead they have been rewritten, and carefully synchronised to the action, by internet jokers evidently with time on their hands. And what started as a one-off gag has now been repeated again and again over hundreds of different subjects. Downfall spoofs are now running riot over the web, lampooning politicians, footballers, even Hitler himself.

Wikipedia on Godwin’s law.

Godwin’s law (also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies)[1][2] is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990[2] which has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1 (100%).”[3][2] In other words, Godwin put forth the hyperbolic observation that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by comparing it to beliefs held by Hitler and the Nazis.

hat-tip: grumpy

12 comments on “Godwin the EQC ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. grumpy 1
    24 June 2011 at 4:54 pm

    Beat you to it @ 12.02…….

    • lprent 1.1
      24 June 2011 at 5:36 pm

      Oh yeah, that is where I got it from – finally got back to the post and added the hat-tip.

      • grumpy 1.1.1
        24 June 2011 at 5:46 pm

        Aw…Gee….Shucks…..you shouldn’t have………

        • lprent 1.1.1.1
          24 June 2011 at 6:19 pm

          You started the godwin, so we really have to credit it to you. 😈

          Saw the link earlier, played it, snuck post in during a rebuilds, didn’t have time to lookup the hat tip. Had to wait for beer o’clock

  2. ianmac 2
    24 June 2011 at 4:59 pm

    Gott Himmel! So that is why my son’s modest contents claim has been pending payout since the 24 February?

  3. Anne 3
    24 June 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Can’t watch any more – turned it off. It’s raising my ire too much. At this moment there’s a government/EQC face-saving job being carried out on Close Up. At complete odds with what ChCh residents have been telling us for weeks on end!

    • Draco T Bastard 3.1
      24 June 2011 at 9:52 pm

      Yeah, I saw that. As soon as it was advertised I knew it would be a spin job. Something to make them look good against the reality that they suck.

  4. ghostwhowalksnz 4
    24 June 2011 at 7:31 pm

    Heard some business leader say Key was some sort genius at getting people to work for him ?

    Dont they see that its all in THEIR head ! And the more people say how charismatic he is they more they believe.

    Naturally nobody at high school can remember him at all, as of course Key had no exalted position and savy media advisors. Even on Wall St he was just another corporate machine, fairly quickly replaced by someone just as faceless.

  5. M 5
    25 June 2011 at 11:56 pm

    Excellent – loved the ones of the financial crisis too a while back.

    One can only hope that as the financial tsunami gathers momentum and therefore doles out more pain it will come before 26 November, even though it will hurt me as well – I don’t want to imagine NZ’s future if these dickwads are returned.

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