Subdued Laughter

 Mel Brooks had the right idea: Nazis are funny. We should laugh at them. At every opportunity. "Springtime for Hitler?" A masterpiece. Sure, maybe it wasn't lauded as such when it first appeared, as it did, a quarter century after the death camps had been liberated but hindsight proves to be quite useful. As does ridicule. 

This may be why Vlad "The Shirtless Wonder" Putin's insistence on the Nazification of Ukraine as the rationale for his own attempt at world domination. It is Vlad's way of positioning the invasion of a democratic republic as a continuation of "The Great Patriotic War." You remember, the one that was mocked in The Producers. By historical coincidence, Russia happened to be fighting alongside the nominal good guys back in World War II, having sat out the First World War while they were having their own revolution. Now, after a few decades of the dissolution of the Soviet Empire, it's Vlad's idea to bring back some of the greatest hits and attempt to reabsorb those previously socialist republics. And what better way to instill his nation's patriotic fervor than to label Ukraine as everyone's favorite bad guys?

Except that Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. And who recently signed a law combating antisemitism. Oh, and did I mention that he is a comedian? And that he did something that Sean Spicer couldn't do: He won Dancing With The Stars. Netflix is currently airing Zelenskyy's comedy series in which an ordinary schoolteacher rises to the presidency on the strength of his wit. 

Nazi? Hardly. But maybe it's the projection that comes through when Putin (rhymes with "pukin'") talks about his target. Who looks more like a Nazi? I suggest that we continue to support Ukraine in any way possible, and perhaps the best and easiest way to do that is to point and laugh at the Shirtless Wonder. The way Charlie Chaplin did. The way Spike Jones did. The way Taika Waititi did. 

Putin deserves ridicule if only for insisting a bordering country is harboring secret Nazis while blowing up women and children in that bordering country. Like a Nazi. Who would you believe, the guy who wrestles bears, or the guy who supplied the Ukrainian voice for Paddington the Bear? 

And if that doesn't help, try imagining Vladimir Putin as Colonel Klink. My money's on the Jewish comedian.