I'm not talking political effects (there will be none of course), I'm talking but cultural effects. Hitler's mustache is thee defining feature of his appearance. So if he didn't have it, what might happen to popular culture surrounding him?
Hitler without the mustache?
- Thread starter MrNumbahOne
- Start date
Yuelang
Banned
and being clean shaven will end up socially unacceptable if you are of age that could grew a moustache and beard
and being clean shaven will end up socially unacceptable if you are of age that could grew a moustache and beard
Probably not so much. Being clean shaven is very practical for oxygen masks. Air force pilots and divers would still need to be clean shaven. Practicality by people who can be demonstrably "heroic" (through movies etc) would go a long way towards rehabilitating such a style.
Zachanassian
Gone Fishin'
Another interesting change is what if Hitler never changed his Hindenberg-style moustache—the one he had during the First World War?
Also, without his moustache he looks like a thinner Hermann Goering.
I agree. I think one of the reasons Chaplin wanted to make the film was because Hitler looked so much like his "Tramp" personality.
Also, without his moustache he looks like a thinner Hermann Goering.
To be perfectly honest, he just looks weird without a moustache, and not just because we are used to seeing him in one.
No Great Dictator means Chaplin's career doesn't get derailed due to the subsequent blacklisting. I wonder what consequences that would have had for the movie industry.
It's subtle, I wonder if, in a way, not having the mustache would make Hitler be taken more seriously in our culture.
You guys have mentioned the numerous parodies and times he's been mocked in U.S. or British culture. Well, what makes that possible is that Nazism combined brutality and tyranny with goofy, comic book-villain like habits (goose-stepping, over-the-top ceremonies). And one of the goofiest traits of Nazism was that funny little 'stache of its leader. It's like Cobra Commander's hood, or Ernst Blofeld's cat: something randomly distinctive about the villainous leader.
It's like how North Korea today earns a similar mixture of horror and ridicule because it somehow manages to be both scary and hilariously ridiculous at the same time, and one of the things that makes that possible is the Kims' fat, chubby bodies and weird hairstyles.
If Hitler were clean shaven, and thus looked less distinctive and more like a regular guy, there may be less of an inclination to mock him and treat him like some specially evil individual. Instead, because there would be a subtle physical detail that makes him less special, there may be more of an inclination to see him as a more universal regular human being, in turn prompting a stronger "it could happen here" view of Nazism.
You guys have mentioned the numerous parodies and times he's been mocked in U.S. or British culture. Well, what makes that possible is that Nazism combined brutality and tyranny with goofy, comic book-villain like habits (goose-stepping, over-the-top ceremonies). And one of the goofiest traits of Nazism was that funny little 'stache of its leader. It's like Cobra Commander's hood, or Ernst Blofeld's cat: something randomly distinctive about the villainous leader.
It's like how North Korea today earns a similar mixture of horror and ridicule because it somehow manages to be both scary and hilariously ridiculous at the same time, and one of the things that makes that possible is the Kims' fat, chubby bodies and weird hairstyles.
If Hitler were clean shaven, and thus looked less distinctive and more like a regular guy, there may be less of an inclination to mock him and treat him like some specially evil individual. Instead, because there would be a subtle physical detail that makes him less special, there may be more of an inclination to see him as a more universal regular human being, in turn prompting a stronger "it could happen here" view of Nazism.
Some years ago, there was a dramatization that depicted how Hitler might have arrived at the trademark face we remember. He cuts his hair until he achieves a distinctive "look." He noticed that the fledgling cinema industry in the twenties depicted hero characters with too much of a "lady's man" look. Even Uncle Sam looked like a lady's man age-progressed into his sixties. Real national figures, like Vladimir Lenin and Abraham Lincoln, had more of a rough, hardened look and they were instantly identifiable. He concluded that just the right haircut and facial hair were necessary to do the trick.
Rather than being associated with pure evil "The Chaplin," as it would be called, becomes associated with hipster doofuses.
That wasn't what actually got him Blacklisted, that was Monsiour Verdoux, and his socialist background after the war, (as well as his habit of dating and marrying much younger co-stars). The speech at the end of (an otherwise very good parody) got him into trouble and triggered a downturn in his popularity. Combined with a couple of very nasty trials (including a paternity suit) this dented his image enough that J Edgar Hoover (who always disliked his politics) could start a smear campaign. After the war the McCarthy era came along, and Chaplin got booted out of the states.
Most of this would have happened anyway but we might not have got that one last brilliant movie without Hitler's mustache. On the other hand Chaplin was deeply socially conscious and had no love for the Nazi's so he might have done something without the resemblance being noted.
If Hitler had been clean shaven I wonder if there would have been a backlash against that instead. The 20th century was largely a beardless century in the west, might people have grown more of them if they felt that since Hitler was clean shaven it was a mark of evil?
On the other hand there is just something about that toothbrush, it just seems...wrong...though that's likely just hindsight.
