JoJo Rabbit: Where the Heil Things Are - Taika Waititi is Hitler

Does the movie make the Nazis funny, or makes fun of them? I’m pretty ok with the latter. Laughing at evil is good.

I’m certainly not going to diminish your family tragedy. Humor is subjective, and you’d certainly have a good reason to not find this funny.

I am curious about your thoughts on Mel Brooks’ The Producers.

As Telefrog said, of course you are free to watch or not watch whatever you want, and humor is obviously subjective.

That said, humor is often used to deliver emotional or uncomfortable messages in a way that is more accessible to audiences. You can have a story that uses humor while still telling a deeper message. I would suggest that Jojo Rabbit is absolutely that kind of movie.

I was waiting for someone to bring that up :).

Apples and oranges. The Producers does not make a comedy out of Nazi Germany. To the contrary, the whole point is that such a comedy is a monumentally bad idea. The humor of the play-within-the-movie comes from how bad it is as a play, not from the subject matter.

Thanks for the reply. I was curious about your reaction to that story.

Counterpoint (and spoilers for The Producers): The play ends up being a smash success, precisely because people are entertained by a play making fun of Hitler. The titular producers didn’t realize how cathartic it can be to take the power away from something horrible by making fun of it.

And the play-within-a-play is basically doing the same thing as Jojo Rabbit, although I would argue that Jojo Rabbit is doing it in service of conveying a deeper message.

Counter-counterpoint :)

In the Producers, people are laughing AT the play because of the ineptness. JoJo wants you to laugh WITH the movie at the Nazis (I assume).

Just because people laugh at Plan 9, that doesn’t make it a comedy.

In the Producers, people are laughing WITH the play, because they believe it is a satire and a work of genius. Jojo Rabbit is also a satire. And in both, you are laughing at the Nazis.

And I should add that a lot of the humor in Jojo Rabbit is based around Taika Waititi’s performance as an imaginary version of Hitler. The fact that a Polynesian Jew is playing Hitler is meta-humor.

Plan 9 was not meant to be funny. Springtime for Hitler (the play within a play) was meant to be offensive, but was interpreted as a satire and a comedy. And the play The Producers and the movie Jojo Rabbit were both intended to be comedies.

Nonsense. Springtime for Hitler was supposed to be an honest tribute to the Reich. Again, people laughed (within the movie) AT it because the actors and script were so bad.

I’m getting confused (I’ve never seen The Producers) - is @Sonoftgb’s concern here that this is a pro-Nazi film?

Have you actually seen the movie/play/movie??? The producers intentionally picked a terrible script, hired a terrible director who wanted to play up the kitschy ridiculousness of the Third Reich, hired costumers and choreographers to implement that vision, and hired an actor to play Hitler who was either a complete hippie flower child (in the movie) or a flamboyantly gay stereotype (in the play and the later movie). The entire point of the movie, the central premise of the story, is that the play was meant to be offensive.

And in the song “Where Did We Go Right?”, they quote the reviews:

“A satiric masterpiece.”
“A surprise smash!”
“Christmas came early to Broadway this season–and guess who they stuffed in our stocking? Adolf Hitler!”
“The best new musical of the decade! Max Bialystock is a theatrical genius!”

Because people perceived it as satire and comedy, they laughed WITH the play, not AT it.

I don’t think so. I believe his argument is that you shouldn’t attempt to make Hitler or the Nazis funny (except in the Producers, where it is done indirectly).

I’ve see the original many times but never the play or the movie of the play, and that sounds like a change between the two.

Yeah, in the original film at least, Springtime for Hitler was produced as a joke, but it was absolutely written earnestly.

You are aware The Producers was originally a movie, yes?

It really isn’t. You may have interpreted the movie as people laughing AT the play for how ridiculous it is, but everything in the story indicates that people enjoy the show and think it is hilarious, not that they’re laughing at how bad it is. You wouldn’t send flowers and congratulations to someone who made something terrible.

HE CLOSES THE DOOR, SHUTTING OUT THE NOISE. THE OFFICE IS
FILLED WITH FLOWERS AND CONGRATULATORY TELEGRAMS. BIALYSTOCK
SWOOPS DOWN ON THE TELEGRAMS. HE RIPS ONE OPEN AND BEGINS
READING.

		BIALYSTOCK
"Congratulations.  It's the biggest
hit on Broadway."

HE TEARS IT UP AND THROWS IT AWAY. HE PICKS UP ANOTHER AND
READS.

		BIALYSTOCK
"Congratulations.  Hitler will run
forever."

HE THROWS IT AWAY. BIALYSTOCK ATTACKS THE PILE OF TELEGRAMS.
WITHOUT OPENING THEM UP, HE TEARS THEM ONE AT A TIME.

		BIALYSTOCK
	(boiling with rage)
Congratulations!

HE TEARS TELEGRAM.

		BIALYSTOCK
Congratulations!

HE TEARS TELEGRAM.

		BIALYSTOCK
Congratulations!

HE TEARS TELEGRAM.

		BIALYSTOCK
Congratulations!

HE TEARS TELEGRAM.

THE DOOR SWINGS OPEN. POSED IN THE DOORWAY IS ROGER DE BRIS.
IN ONE HAND HE CARRIES AN OPEN, BUBBLING MAGNUM OF CHAMPAGNE.

		DE BRIS
	(ecstatic)
Congratulations!  Have you seen the
reviews?  Have you seen the lines
at the box office?  It's a torrent,
it's an avalanche, it's the biggest
hit on Broadway!

In all versions, the final play was produced to be offensive. The intent of the original author, no matter how earnest, has no bearing on the final product.

And in fact, Jojo Rabbit was based on a book, Caging Skies, that was not written to be funny. Taika Waititi wrote the movie with comedic elements, but that doesn’t undercut the dramatic message of the story. It’s the same thing with Dr. Strangelove. Humor is a valid form of art.

Yes, of course, but the plot is the same between the movie and the play. I cited the play because it’s the more popular of the two, but it really doesn’t matter because the point is the same either way: Making fun of Hitler and the Nazis is a perfectly valid form of humor. And humor is a perfectly valid way of communicating deeper messages about humanity.

I saw this is in the theater last night. While it’s ultimately quite uplifting Im not entirely sure this was a good move by Taika. I certainly wouldnt recommend it to anyone.

In the context of a pretty clueless 10 year old boy everything that goes on around him is perfectly ‘fine’ but in reality this is making light of the worst of human nature.

I enjoyed all of the performances and the sound track.

Wow, my take was the exact opposite. I’ve been recommending this to as many people as I can, and my son and I both loved it.

I’m curious about what you think is “making light of the worst of human nature”, but I’m not sure how deeply we should go into spoiler territory in this thread.

I really hope someone else sees this film so we can have a discussion about it!

Just watched it and loved it. The rest of the audience and the boomers I saw it with also all loved it (I’m gen X). I’m really glad I caught so much of the negative buzz this week, because that ended up lowering my expectations and the movie then exceeded them and it ended up being more or less what I originally hoped for. Still processing what I just experienced, but if you’re a big Taika fan I wouldn’t be as worried as I was for a bit going in.