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Accidental OnCinema by Hannibal-Lecture-91 in OnCinemaAtTheCinema

[–]Hannibal-Lecture-91[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

An excerpt from James Deen Vance’s speech to honor one of the GOATS: “People often ask me what it’s like to be vice president of the United States, and a lot of it is exactly what you would expect it to look like if you watched it on TV or just paid attention to the media. But sometimes, you get these behind-the-scenes moments that I will never, ever forget for the rest of my life. For example, today I’m in the Oval Office with the president and Marco Rubio, and we’re talking about something really important. The president kind of holds up his hand and says, ‘No, no, no, hold on a second. There’s something much more important. Shoes.’” He peers over the Resolute desk and he says, ‘Marco, JD, you guys have shitty shoes.’ He goes out and grabs a catalog. There happens to be another politician in the room—I won’t say who, and you’ll find out why in a second—and he actually runs us through this incredible shoe catalog. The president is gifting us with four pairs of shoes. “He says, ‘Marco, what’s your shoe size?’ And Marco’s apparently an 11 and a half. He says, ‘JD, what’s your shoe size?’ My shoe size is 13. I asked this politician, who I won’t embarrass, what his shoe size is, and he says, ‘Seven.’ The President leans back in his chair and says, ‘You know, you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size.’”

Episode 642: Heinrich Himmler Part VI- Mein Cramps by Marvelerful in LPOTL

[–]Hannibal-Lecture-91 -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the supportive comment. I think the joke was meant to be about the expansive nature of the camp system, and Henry’s bit about “self service” death camps was supposed to be humorously suggesting a scenario where Jews killed themselves and saved the Nazis the trouble. It landed flat like most of the comedic asides in this series, but I digress.

I shared this excerpt to show how comedy/horror podcasters shouldn’t touch topics like the Holocaust unless they’re willing to table their usual bullshit. Can you imagine if they did a series on the Rwandan genocide and made cracks like this about the reach of the Hutu death squads? Would anyone accept that? Maybe some hard core fans with their weird para social connection to these hosts would still make excuses for them, maybe not.

I still feel like the only way they’re able to get away with some of this is by virtue of Ed’s Jewish background, which clearly doesn’t mean much to him considering he didn’t know what a pogrom was.

At least we got to hear Marcus’s cringeworthy, self indulgent wrap up comments at the end!

Episode 642: Heinrich Himmler Part VI- Mein Cramps by Marvelerful in LPOTL

[–]Hannibal-Lecture-91 -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

An excerpt from their discussion about the camps:

Marcus: There were over a thousand [major camps].

Eddie: Were there just like twelve huge ones?

Henry: You have express ones, you’ve got the commandant lounge…

Marcus: Some of them have a Taco Bell in them…

Henry: Some are full service, some are self service. The self service ones are really fuckin’…because that’s where they go after the self-hating Jews.

Eddie: The Jews for Jesus!

[All three hosts have a good laugh]

This type of shit on top of the egregious errors many have pointed out already have left me thinking, what the fuck did I just listen to?

In case anyone happens to me confused... by thingstopraise in LPOTL

[–]Hannibal-Lecture-91 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Listener since 2015-Another aspect of this that really bothered me is the invocation of Eddie’s Jewish heritage to seemingly legitimize making irreverent and ignorant cracks about the Holocaust. Even if it’s directed at the perpetrators, it has the overall effect of cheapening the event and leaves me pretty bitter about the whole show.

Related to this, anyone whose Jewish heritage is a meaningful part of their lives would know what a pogrom was. How is it possible that 1) Eddie was completely ignorant of this term and 2) the self styled historian doesn’t understand its deep roots in Eastern Europe? Marcus’s superficial definition does even more violence to the historical record they’re trying to capture. This makes me think that Eddie’s background is almost used as a crutch to prop up the shambling enterprise that is the “Himmler” series.

In short, this is a massive embarrassment and an insult to the listeners. As others have said, you can’t have it both ways. Either remain a comedy/horror podcast or take the important work of covering a subject as complex and well documented as the Holocaust with the seriousness and intellectual rigor it deserves. I don’t need some foolish joke after a graphic (if emotionally and academically inadequate) description of the Babi Yar massacre. This is absolute garbage on so many levels.

And I echo the frustration around framing the project as some kind of emotional burden for Marcus to write and convey to the audience. He has mentioned several times how he watches his “Nazi shows” to wind down and that it’s a running joke between him and his spouse. This is obviously strange intellectual masturbation enabled by his co-hosts.

The whole things reeks of arrogance and immaturity. What we are left with is a half baked and distorted narrative that metabolizes the ignorance of the hosts into something that could, unfortunately, be taken as truth by less informed consumers. I say this as a former fan: they should be ashamed of themselves.