We Still Have Hockey

[bincitysioux]

Regarding this video, the timing was unfortunate, but competely coincidental. The video was posted on Bisonville almost three days before the anti-semetic dorm story broke.

It was also pulled the day that UND and NDSU publicly condemned the video. I doubt it was pulled because Tatanka was feeling sensitive to the anti-semetic dorm situation.

........a few of the jokes in Tatanka's video are based on running gags at Bisonville

I wasn't by any means offended by the video, nor was I surprised. I get frustrated though by all of those running gags at Bisonville that compare or refer to UND to the Nazi's, or call us or the University racists. Portraying Hitler as one of UND's biggest supporters is not flattering, and not real funny. Hammersmith, you know as well as I that it goes on all the time there. The "Under the Bunker" theme has been going on since Buning resigned. That !@#$ gets old.

[skeletor_24]

Your other examples aren't on the same scale as this video. It wasn't like the video itself was of people making fun of Jews or Hitler persecuting them. It wasn't even a scene dealing with Jews. It was a scene with a military leader, albeit one with horrendous human rights violations. However, he has been portrayed for comedic purposes before (Hogan' Heroes) and will continue to be. What makes the video funny is the subtitles. You could have used any foreign speaking angry person on the brink of destruction and the video would not change. The original video used Hitler because of the recognition factor but it isn't what the video is about. It is unfortunate that the video needs to be taken out of context.

Great response, some sanity in a sea of insanity.

[Hammersmith]

It was also pulled the day that UND and NDSU publicly condemned the video. I doubt it was pulled because Tatanka was feeling sensitive to the anti-semetic dorm situation.

I wasn't by any means offended by the video, nor was I surprised. I get frustrated though by all of those running gags at Bisonville that compare or refer to UND to the Nazi's, or call us or the University racists. Portraying Hitler as one of UND's biggest supporters is not flattering, and not real funny. Hammersmith, you know as well as I that it goes on all the time there. The "Under the Bunker" theme has been going on since Buning resigned. That !@#$ gets old.

Crap. Browser ate my reply. Take two...

The running gags I was referring to weren't the Nazi thing; I don't like those comparisons either, and I don't think I've ever made one myself. As a fellow WWII buff, I can kind of see where Ralph was coming from with his parties. I probably would have gone with a Japanese-themed party on Adm. Yamamoto's birthday or something, but the thought is similar. I was referring to the "out of town and unavailable for comment" and the "but we (still) have hockey" gags that have been catchphrases at Bisonville for over a year. I'm quite surprised that Tatanka didn't find some way of working "firetrucks" into the subtitles as well. Personally, I think many are reading a bit too much into the Nazi=UND side of the video, but I can understand why you might. You guys have been taking a lot of hits from all sides for the last several years, and that makes one hypersensitive to any possible attack. It's the way many of us Bison felt from 2002-2006. But that's getting off track. The reason I think Tatanka wasn't going for UND=Nazi as a primary theme is because he first learned about the clip from a version mocking the Vancouver Canucks. Mocking hockey to mocking UND is a shorter trip than the other, IMO. I also lean that way because I almost made a version of the clip mocking UND/Kupchella after seeing the stormchaser version a couple months back. I didn't think I had the technical skills to pull it off quickly(or the humor skills), so I forgot about it until Tat's version. While Ralph's parties would've added a layer of dark humor to the piece, that would never have been my primary(or secondary, or even tertiary) reason for making a clip. I might be projecting my own motivations onto Tatanka, but I've never got the feeling that his stuff is mean-spirited in the same way that a version by JBB or Bison Dan would be. It's also why I think the dorm story is a major reason why he pulled it, though I'm sure the response from the NDSU official played a significant part as well. Just my $0.02.

[Old Barn Guy at Home]

Has anyone on this site ever seen the 3 Stooges' episodes where Moe is playing the part of Hitler? I believe those comedies may have even been filmed before we entered WWII. The comment about mocking Hitler and bringing him down by ridicule is valid. The fact that the Stooges were all Jews even adds to the fact that comedy can be making social statements in addition to making people laugh.

The line between tradgedy and comedy is sometimes very thin. This "Bunker" video was hilarious and while I was watching it, I was not for one minute thinking about the "real" AdolfHitler and his terrible actions.

I see no connections between the dorm incidents and this video. I think the people who do may need to step back a bit and see the picture that the great majority of the people see.

[Goon]

I wasn't by any means offended by the video, nor was I surprised. I get frustrated though by all of those running gags at Bisonville that compare or refer to UND to the Nazi's, or call us or the University racists. Portraying Hitler as one of UND's biggest supporters is not flattering, and not real funny. Hammersmith, you know as well as I that it goes on all the time there. The "Under the Bunker" theme has been going on since Buning resigned. That !@#$ gets old.

I agree with that statement.

[sioux rube]

Has anyone on this site ever seen the 3 Stooges' episodes where Moe is playing the part of Hitler? I believe those comedies may have even been filmed before we entered WWII. The comment about mocking Hitler and bringing him down by ridicule is valid. The fact that the Stooges were all Jews even adds to the fact that comedy can be making social statements in addition to making people laugh.

The line between tradgedy and comedy is sometimes very thin. This "Bunker" video was hilarious and while I was watching it, I was not for one minute thinking about the "real" AdolfHitler and his terrible actions.

I see no connections between the dorm incidents and this video. I think the people who do may need to step back a bit and see the picture that the great majority of the people see.

Well said and I couldn't agree more.I sent the clip to all my friends on my email list and did not get one negative comment back.

[Runninwiththedogs]

My great-grandpa told me about the era and the feelings that he had towards Nazi Germany and I study history at UND so I've learned about it quite extensively myself.

Feelings are not facts. If your great-grandfather was in WWII (which I'm guessing he was, since wasn't everyone's great-grandfather... or grandfather, or father, or in the case of MikeJM, grandson ) then he has most likely witnessed atrocities of war you'll never be exposed to. But that's not singular to the European theater in WWII. There are veterans who have strong feelings towards Japanese people or Vietnamese people or Arab people... because they were shot at and their friends were killed by Japanese/Vietnamese/Arab people, and combat conditions people in certain ways. You could learn to hate anyone if they shot at you and killed your friends. But as long as you hate them, they still have power over you.

There are gags and jokes that involve Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, people who are responsible for genocide in our lifetime, and the outrage isn't there. If this was a video clip of Pol Pot, people would either 1. not even get it because they don't know who he is or 2. laugh (provided the jokes still made sense). Why is Hitler so much worse? Is it a game of numbers, that he killed so many more people? Is it because Hitler actually killed people who look like us, and not some people half a world away who are "different", so we can say "We would never do that"? Is it because we learn about WWII/Nazi Germany in history classes so we are forced to pay attention, while Slobodan Milo

[The Sicatoka]

"We've moved on."

Oh yeah, sure you have .... that's why that video is about SDSU.

And they had to rip the notion off!

Just another case of "chucklehead Bison fans who believe that the idea of thinking for oneself is vastly overrated."

[SiouxMeNow]

Feelings are not facts. If your great-grandfather was in WWII (which I'm guessing he was, since wasn't everyone's great-grandfather... or grandfather, or father, or in the case of MikeJM, grandson ) then he has most likely witnessed atrocities of war you'll never be exposed to. But that's not singular to the European theater in WWII. There are veterans who have strong feelings towards Japanese people or Vietnamese people or Arab people... because they were shot at and their friends were killed by Japanese/Vietnamese/Arab people, and combat conditions people in certain ways. You could learn to hate anyone if they shot at you and killed your friends. But as long as you hate them, they still have power over you.

There are gags and jokes that involve Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, people who are responsible for genocide in our lifetime, and the outrage isn't there. If this was a video clip of Pol Pot, people would either 1. not even get it because they don't know who he is or 2. laugh (provided the jokes still made sense). Why is Hitler so much worse? Is it a game of numbers, that he killed so many more people? Is it because Hitler actually killed people who look like us, and not some people half a world away who are "different", so we can say "We would never do that"? Is it because we learn about WWII/Nazi Germany in history classes so we are forced to pay attention, while Slobodan Milo

[mikejm]

...or in the case of MikeJM, grandson ...

Hey, I'm not that old!

There are gags and jokes that involve Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, people who are responsible for genocide in our lifetime, and the outrage isn't there. If this was a video clip of Pol Pot, people would either 1. not even get it because they don't know who he is or 2. laugh (provided the jokes still made sense). Why is Hitler so much worse? Is it a game of numbers, that he killed so many more people? Is it because Hitler actually killed people who look like us, and not some people half a world away who are "different", so we can say "We would never do that"? Is it because we learn about WWII/Nazi Germany in history classes so we are forced to pay attention, while Slobodan Milo

[franchise]

Man, this site...

With this much uproar, I would have thought someone mentioned "Murder Inc" again.

[The Whistler]

Man, this site...

With this much uproar, I would have thought someone mentioned "Murder Inc" again.

Now you did it!

[PartTime]

It was also pulled the day that UND and NDSU publicly condemned the video. I doubt it was pulled because Tatanka was feeling sensitive to the anti-semetic dorm situation.

I wasn't by any means offended by the video, nor was I surprised. I get frustrated though by all of those running gags at Bisonville that compare or refer to UND to the Nazi's, or call us or the University racists. Portraying Hitler as one of UND's biggest supporters is not flattering, and not real funny. Hammersmith, you know as well as I that it goes on all the time there. The "Under the Bunker" theme has been going on since Buning resigned. That !@#$ gets old.

Pretty much my take also.

[dallassiouxfan]

Man, this site...

With this much uproar, I would have thought someone mentioned "Murder Inc" again.

so true

[GeauxSioux]

Being a conservative I'm not a big fan of Susan Estrich, but this piece caught my eye. Evidently Estrich watched a version of the Hitler clip about Hillary.

Is Hitler Funny?

When I was growing up, the Holocaust was a fresh memory for the people of my parents' generation, and because of that, for mine as well. My Hebrew schoolteacher had a number on his arm. He made us look at the pictures, to the chagrin of some of the parents, who wondered if we weren't too young to be exposed to such horror. But of course no one was too young to be a victim. The point was never to forget.

The generation that witnessed Hitler's evil first-hand is dying. The "survivors," even the youngest of them, are old now. The Holocaust, to today's teenagers, is something that was over nearly 50 years before they were born. World War I never meant much to me personally, yet it was closer to my birth than the Holocaust is to theirs. The danger isn't simply that we will forget, but the way in which we remember.

Do the people making these videos have any idea what the "real" Hitler is actually saying? Or, even more importantly, what he did? The reality is that the kind of hatred he fed on, spewed and spread is still very much alive. It it weren't, he might be funny.

The image that stuck with me was not of Hitler ranting, but of myself, my son, my colleagues, laughing.

When I first watched the UND version of the bunker, I admit that I snickered a little until I thought a little deeper about the "real" Hitler.

[Sioux_Yeah_Yeah]

I think everyone should read up on Heinrich Himmler and then see what people have to say about Ralph being a Nazi........ This guy was the Devil compared to Ralph...

[Old Barn Guy]

Where were all of these "complainers" when "Hogan's Heroes" was on national tv, and even now may be on syndicated re-runs. I have never felt that shows like that, or the "Producers" (remember the phoney "Springtime for Hitler" play they were doing) were meaning to belittle the actual horendous deeds of the Nazis. Sometimes the line between comedy and tragedy is a thin one.