'Hitler' reacts to Nicki Minaj video

In parody clip, Nazi leader lashes out at rap artist for imitating his style

Uh oh, Hitler got word of Nicki Minaj’s new music video, and he’s not happy.

In the latest “Hitler Reacts To” video — where YouTubers parody a dramatic scene from the 2004 World War II movie “Der Untergang” (“Downfall”), by replacing the film’s subtitles with their own anachronistic text — the Fuhrer lashes out at Minaj for imitating his “Triumph of the Will” documentary.

“How could Nicki Minaj rip off my director like this?” the subtitles imagine a crestfallen Hitler shouting. “Without giving me any credit? Without espousing any Nazi ideology!”

The Hitler video comes after a tumultuous week for Minaj, whose music video for her song “Only” was accused of appropriating Nazi imagery and glorifying fascism. The video intrigued some — like the Atlantic’s Noah Berlatsky, who put on his Literary Criticism 101 hat and gave the video a deep reading Tuesday — but mostly outraged everyone else, including the Anti-Defamation League, which was “deeply disturbed.”

Eventually Minaj tweeted an apology for the video, which the ADL graciously accepted, and everyone seemed ready to move on.

Except the video’s director Jeff Osborne is still sticking to his guns.
“First, I’m not apologizing for my work, nor will I dodge the immediate question. The flags, armbands, and gas mask [in the video] (and perhaps my use of symmetry?) are all representative of Nazism,” he wrote in a statement posted on Myspace Tuesday. “So if my work is misinterpreted because it’s not a sappy tearjerker, sorry I’m not sorry.”

Maybe Hitler is mad at the wrong artist.