The Story Behind the Hitler Downfall Video Meme

Those amateur re-workings of the great Constantin Film WWII drama The Downfall (Der Untergang) have become wildly popular, according to an interesting exploration on BBC News. The Beeb notes that a Constantin Film exec says the company is somewhat ambivalent toward the parodies:

"We as a corporation have a bit of an ambivalent view of it. On the one hand we are proud the picture has such a huge fanbase and that people are using it for parody. On the other hand we are trying to protect the artists." As such Constantin Film has caused many of the parodies to be removed from YouTube and elsewhere.