Taika Waititi has pleasantly surprised us time and time again with his many skills and talents. He’s pretty good at the comedy thing, made vampires popular again with What We Do In The Shadows, revitalised the Thor series, and is probably the only person capable of making that long-gestating live-action Akira film adaptation.
And now he’s done it again by bringing back one of the all-time great memes in recent memory: the Downfall meme.
Taika has a film called Jojo Rabbit coming out soon and it tells the story of a lonely German boy whose only friend is an imaginary Adolf Hitler, who is played as a bumbling fool by Waititi.
So how exactly would Hitler react to the thought of a Polynesian Jew playing him in a darkly satirical film that basically takes the piss out of everything about him and what he stood for?
Short answer: Not too well.
For those who are unaware of this meme, it comes from the 2004 German film, Downfall, which recounts the last few days of Hitler’s life.
The critically acclaimed film was later enshrined into internet culture in 2006 when some genius uploaded a spoof version of the now-iconic scene of Hitler losing his marbles when being told Germany’s defeat is inevitable. Since then, all corners of the internet have used the meme to parody and/or provide commentary on topical events, entertainment and pop-culture.
Given how quickly meme culture moves these days, it’s actually impressive how long the Downfall meme has stuck around and seeing it being used to plug a satirical film about Hitler feels like it has come full circle.
Seeing how Taika has given the meme renewed spotlight, it makes me think that Jojo Rabbit could well contain a shot-for-shot remake of the meme because, well, why the hell not. We’ll find out soon enough when the film comes out on October 18.