The more I think about it, the more I think there was fatal dissonance between Fry's talents, witty repartee and wordplay, and the serious topics he wanted to treat, namely the Holocaust and gay rights. Not that it can't be done, but using the Holocaust as the vehicle for his examination of gay rights probably couldn't work well with the tools at Fry's command. If he could only have left the Holocaust out of it I think he might have pulled it off, with a very different story, of course.
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Originally Posted by bfisher
There was Chaplin (The Great Dictator) and Lubitsch (To Be or Not to Be), but these were both done before knowledge of the Holocaust became widespread.
I believe you are spot on; the plot of The Producers was based on the notion that you could not use Hitler as entertainment.
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Yes. Before the war, Hitler could be seen as a figure of fun, even as late night comedians right now have substantial fodder in current events. Come Armageddon, none of it will seem that funny.
The other parody I can think of, of exactly the same vintage as
The Producers, is the American sitcom
Hogan's Heroes. It couldn't be produced now, but for some reason it was acceptable at that moment. One of the many ironies of
Hogan's Heroes is that virtually all the German roles were played by German or Austrian Jews who'd managed to escape in time.