Wanted: Star Wars Droid Inventors

With the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit, kids can create their own custom Droid and bring it to life for the first time ever!

littleBits, the award-winning company that empowers kids to be inventors, today announced the launch of its Droid Inventor Kit, which enables kids to create their own Droid. An integral part of the global launch of Disney and Lucasfilm's Force Friday II, the Droid Inventor Kit brings Droids to life, inspiring imagination and invention for kids around the world. Kids can easily create and power up their own mechanical companion using littleBits electronic Bits--along with the free Droid Inventor app--to send their creation on more than 17 special Star Warsmissions, complete with authentic droid sounds from the Star Wars films. 

As they unlock new capabilities and level up their Droid Inventor skills, kids can also learn how to create their own custom R2 Units and experiences, combining play with real hands-on learning.

"Today we are continuing a global inventor movement that empowers young people to participate in a story that inspires them to be creators, not just consumers of technology," said Ayah Bdeir, founder & CEO of littleBits. "We've created a gender-inclusive product that celebrates kids' own self-expression and ingenuity, while showcasing the same characteristics of imagination, grit and invention that are embodied in the Star Wars franchise."

With invention at its core, the Droid Inventor Kit fosters creativity and problem-solving skills. In-app challenges encourage kids to reconfigure the littleBits technology in new and unique ways, in combination with household items, so they can create their own custom Droids such as a delivery Droid, a room guardian, and more.

The Droid Inventor Kit includes all the components needed for kids to create their very own Droid. A free app (iOS and Android) completes the experience, providing step-by-step instructions and how-to videos.

• The app guides kids as they put together their Droid and control it in Drive Mode, Self-Nav, Force Mode, and more, making it the ultimate galactic sidekick.
• After mastering their Droid Inventor skills, kids continue on to challenges that spark creativity and inspire them to create unique new Droids.
• Each littleBits electronic block has a different function such as a power, motor, or sensor, which kids can use with their Droid in new and exciting ways.
• Included stickers and in-app missions encourage kids to customize their Droid using crafts or household objects, giving their Droid its own special personality.
• Kids will take pride in creating any Droid they imagine, and parents will love the endless play opportunities.

Using the littleBits Droid Inventor Kit and the free Droid Inventor app, kids will teach their R2 Unit new tricks and take it on 16+ missions.

The company is committed to bringing more girls into STEM/STEAM by designing products that are gender-inclusive and celebrating female inventors. littleBits products currently see adoption by girls at around thirty-five percent--an industry high.

"The littleBits Droid Inventor Kit has the elements to be one of this year's hot toys," said Jim Silver, CEO and editor-in-chief of TTPM. "It combines the huge fandom of Star Wars, STEAM, and tons of creative fun. Its open-ended design and deep engagement will be particularly appealing for both kids and parents, ensuring long-lasting interest through repeat play."

The Droid Inventor Kit comes with 20 Droid parts, six Bits, three sticker sheets, as well as a free download of the littleBits Droid Inventor app. The Droid Inventor Kit retails for $99.95 and is available now at Walmart stores nationwide, Amazon, Apple Store, Disney Store, and littleBits.com. 

littleBits Droid Inventor Kit

For more information and a complete list of global retail locations, please visit: littleBits.cc/starwars.

Source: littleBits

Bonus Video:

White Supremacists Are On The March, But The Ku Klux Klan Is History

When you wash your best sheets for nothing. EPA/Erik S. Lesser

By Kristofer Allerfeldt, University of Exeter

When Donald Trump repeatedly equated the far-right activists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia with the anti-fascist counter-protesters, the media’s reaction was swift and clear. The next covers of both the New Yorker and The Economist featured cartoons of Trump and a Ku Klux Klan hood. In one, the president guides a ship of state with a sail shaped like a hood; in the other, he shouts into a megaphone designed to look like the infamous white headpiece.

To many commentators, the Klan costume is now the perfect visual sleight with which to decry Trump’s cack-handed false equivalence. After all, hoods and burning crosses are the most potent icons of American white supremacy, an easy shorthand for racism and bigotry. But despite the scenes of extrovert white supremacists on the march with burning torches in Charlottesville, something important has changed: today, there is essentially no such thing as “the Klan”.

Its brand began to evaporate as long ago as 1944, when the Internal Revenue Service turned up an unpayable debt stemming from the organisation’s lucrative glory days in the 1920s. The debt was never repaid, meaning that those who would use the name today must settle it, which – thanks to compound interest – now stretches into the tens of millions.

The upshot is that today there are many different, equally horrible organisations designed to spread hate, all using the word “Klan”, but unable to call themselves simply the Ku Klux Klan. The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which tracks hate groups across the US, currently counts 130 such groups. They total some 5,000 to 8,000 members. Few have more than regional appeal; very few have statewide reach, and none are national.

Some groups share their anti-Semitic vitriol with neo-Nazi organisations, drawing on modern paganism, usually based around the neo-Norse mythologies. Some are militia-survivalists preparing for the Wagnerian denouement of US civilisation in a “race war”. Still others focus on what they call the “White Holocaust” of abortion, which they claim disproportionately targets Caucasian babies, or adhere to “traditional” white supremacy grounded in extreme white Anglo-Saxon protestant ideals.

The bad old days

Frightening though this may sound, this is far from a return to the KKK’s 1920s heyday. Back then, it was a true mass movement, pyramid-selling membership to millions of people in every state in the US and some of Canada; it even harboured ambitions of establishing “Klaverns” worldwide. Nor are we seeing a return to the Klans’ ultra-violent backlashes against civil rights in the 1870s or 1950s, when they commanded considerable, if localised, support.

The media should be careful about labelling far right groups or activists as “the Klan” just because they have associated views. This gives the oxygen of publicity to the ideological remnants of a group that hasn’t really existed for 70 years.

This was a different matter when the Klan was in full force. In 1921, the New York World famously ran 21 anti-Klan front-page articles, exposing the group’s awful activities day after day with large-point headlines – “Ku Klux Made Jews and Negroes Target for Racial Hatreds”, “Bitter Anti-Catholic Propaganda Peddled by Officials of Klan”.

These headlines spurred a full investigation by a House of Representatives committee, where the founder of the Klan, “Imperial Wizard” William Joseph Simmons, successfully defended the order against claims of corruption, violence and bigotry. In a widely reported and memorable phrase, he argued his Klan was as “innocent as the breath of an angel”.

Thankfully, few if any believe such claptrap today. But that’s no reason for complacency. It should shock us that the Klans and their allies feel confident enough to take part in a public rally on the scale of Charlottesville, and that they feel others in the US might support them. Nevertheless, they almost certainly don’t have popular backing and there will not be a return to the dark days when the KKK enjoyed mass national membership, or regional sympathy.

Today, as always in the past, the Klans’ grab-bag ideology of hatreds and grievances contains the seeds of its own destruction. Publicity has the power to show “Klansmen” for what they really are: a collection of sad, dysfunctional, bigots who both celebrate their social exclusion and plot the downfall of those who exclude them.

History shows us they will never be able to unite under one banner, at least not for very long. But it would be a tragedy if a lack of historical context in the coverage of current events gives the wrong impression, helping Klansmen to achieve any form of unity.

About Today's Contributor:
Kristofer Allerfeldt, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Exeter

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

Star Photographer Markus Klinko, Modern Rocks Gallery Announce Auction To Benefit Red Cross Hurricane Harvey Relief

Beyoncé by Markus Klinko, Modern Rocks Gallery

Award-winning, international fashion and celebrity photographer Markus Klinko and Texas-based Modern Rocks Gallery today announced the launch of "Dangerously in Love with Houston: Modern Rocks Gallery / Markus Klinko Auction," an online auction of signed, first worldwide edition Beyoncé photographs with proceeds benefiting the Red Cross and its Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. 

The online auction will feature three 16"X20" photographs of Houston-native Beyoncé from the 2003 cover shoot of her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, signed by Markus Klinko.

Fujifilm supports the auction with printing and mounting, while Broncolor will donate shipping of the photographs to auction winners. All money raised from the auctions will go to the Red Cross Houston and Gulf Coast relief efforts.

The auction is online at modernrocksgallery.com/hurricane-relief and begins at 2 pm CST, Wed., Aug. 30 and closes at 2 pm CST, Sat., Sept. 9, 2017.

"I met Beyonce first in 2000 as a member of Destiny's Child during a photo shoot for Vibe and later was hired to shoot the cover of Beyoncé's debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. The images in our Hurricane Harvey relief auction were shot at my Soho studio," said Klinko. "And, I remember this shoot as one of my favorite experiences. Beyoncé later shared that these photographs were her all-time favorites."

"It's a privilege to have the opportunity to support Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. The catastrophic impact on Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast will require months and years of recovery, relief and rebuilding. It's one way I can help raise funds and awareness for the people of Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast," added Klinko.

"We're grateful for Markus' tremendous generosity in this effort," Steven Walker, owner of Modern Rocks Gallery said. "Our heart aches for the people of Houston and the Gulf Coast, and we wanted to find a way to raise awareness and critical funds for the recovery and relief efforts there. Being able to feature these iconic images of Houston-born Beyoncé in this auction make the effort even more special."

SOURCE: Modern Rocks Gallery

"Planet of the Orb Trees": New Children's Dystopian Book Promotes Environmental Awareness

Planet of the Orb Trees

Heartlab Press Inc. is pleased to announce the upcoming publication of Barton Ludwig's dystopian young reader's title, "Planet of the Orb Trees".

Written for a generation growing up in an era of environmental climate change, "Planet of the Orb Trees" takes place on a planet where natural disasters have pushed the last of humanity to the confines of an old amusement park. With unlimited rubus orbs for energy, unlimited roller-coaster rides, and unlimited distractions, everyone is happy. Everyone except Kai, a young boy who dreams of travelling beyond the stars.

Determined to get to Planet Ketera, Kai takes his knapsack—which can only carry 5 orbs and sets out to reach the largest rubus tree in search of more powerful orbs to fuel his flight. Beyond the comfort and safety of home, Kai learns of the value of thinking beyond immediate gratification, of thinking of his surroundings, and, most importantly, of thinking of other living beings.

Ludwig wrote this book with hopes to promote ecological awareness, conservation of resources and environmental action.  

"Planet of the Orb Trees," is an adventure dystopian book that encourages children not to take nature for granted.

• The official release date of "Planet of the Orb Trees" is December 14, 2017. It will be available on Amazon as well as major retailers in print and digital formats.

SOURCE: Heartlab Press Inc.

American Geophysical Union Coalition Receives Grant to Advance Open and FAIR Data Standards in the Earth and Space Sciences

Image via: American Geophysical Union Facebook Page

Open, accessible, and high-quality data and related data products and software are critical to the integrity of published research. They ensure transparency and support reproducibility and are necessary for accelerating the advancement of science. In many cases, the data are one-time observations that cannot be repeated.  Unfortunately, not all key data are saved and even when they are, their curation is uneven and discovery is difficult, thus making it difficult for other researchers to understand and use the data sets.

To address this critical need, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation has awarded a grant to a coalition of groups representing the international Earth and space science community, convened by the American Geophysical Union (AGU), to develop standards that will connect researchers, publishers, and data repositories in the Earth and space sciences to enable FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data – a concept first developed by Force11.org – on a large scale. This will accelerate scientific discovery and enhance the integrity, transparency, and reproducibility of this data. 

The resulting set of best practices will include: metadata and identifier standards; data services; common taxonomies; landing pages at repositories to expose the metadata and standard repository information; standard data citation; and standard integration into editorial peer review workflows.

"AGU's commitment to open data and data stewardship started in 1997 when we developed one of the first society position statements on open data. We developed that position statement because we recognized properly documented, credited, and preserved, data would help future scientists understand the Earth, planetary, and heliophysics systems, and that is an integral responsibility of scientists, data stewards, and sponsoring institutions to ensure the preservation of that data," said Chris McEntee, AGU's executive director/CEO. "Today, with the generous support of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, our community is working together to ensure that the Earth and space sciences, including more than 50,000 publications, will then be the first scientific field to have open and well-described data as a default, making that data discoverable and freely accessible across our sciences, as well as other scientific disciplines and the public."

The partnership currently includes AGU, the Earth Science Information Partners and Research Data Alliance, and has support from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature, Science, AuScope, the Australian National Data Service, and the Center for Open Science. This effort will build on the work of The Coalition on Publishing Data in the Earth and Space Sciences (COPDESS.org), ESIP, RDA, the scientific journals, and domain repositories to ensure that well documented data, preserved in a repository with community agreed-upon metadata, and supporting persistent identifiers becomes part of the expected research products submitted in support of each publication. It is expected that the broader community will play a key role in the recommended guidelines and approach. A key goal is to make a process that is efficient and standard for researchers and thus supports their work from grant application through to publishing.

Scientific results are increasingly dependent on large complex data sets and models that transform these data. This is particularly true in the Earth and space sciences, where critical data increasingly provide diverse and important societal benefits and are used in critical real-time decisions. The partners will work with major Earth and space science data repositories, publishers, editorial workflow vendors, researchers, and allied stakeholders to develop common standards and workflows for submission of data, connect repositories and publishers, develop and implement tools needed for search and discovery, and enhance quality peer review. 

This process will help: 
1) researchers understand and follow expectations regarding data curation; 
2) publishers adopt and implement standard and best practices around data citation; and 
3) make data discoverable and accessible, including to the public.

Read AGU's position statement on data.

AGU Executive Director and CEO Chris McEntee

About The American Geophysical Union:
The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing nearly 60,000 members in 139 countries. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and AGU's other social media channels.

SOURCE: American Geophysical Union

Bonus Video:

San Antonio Praised for Welcoming Hurricane Harvey Evacuees, But Save the Children Finds Shelters Initially Fall Short in Meeting Children's Needs

Katrina places her 9-month-old son, Malachi, in a pack-and-play crib. Malachi fell off his cot when he was sleeping and bumped his nose. The family is staying in a hurricane shelter in San Antonio, Texas. (Save the Children photo.)

As hundreds of displaced families, including many with infants and toddlers, continue to arrive in San Antonio each day seeking refuge from Hurricane Harvey's catastrophic flooding, Save the Children has moved quickly to provide the city's shelters with the necessary equipment and services to keep children safe.

"Yesterday, in San Antonio's largest operating shelter, with nearly 1,000 people, more than 20 infants and toddlers spent the night sleeping in card board boxes, and many more toddlers slept on military cots from which they could easily slip off and hurt themselves. Parents also expressed concern they had no way to bathe their babies," said Jeanne-Aimee De Marrais, Save the Children's senior director of U.S. emergencies, who is leading the agency's response in Texas.

"In one case, a nine-month-old boy slipped off his cot and cut his nose," said De Marrais. "In another case, a grandmother told me she had not been able to bathe her two-month-old grandchild in nearly a week. We quickly brought in portable pack-and-play cribs, umbrella strollers and hygiene kits with plastic water basins to help parents keep their children safe and comfortable."

Added De Marrais: "San Antonio has become ground zero for evacuees, providing beds for up to 6,000 people. The city has done a great job mobilizing support so quickly in the early stages of a major response like this, but we are finding that the basic needs of mothers and small children in shelters are getting overlooked. Cardboard boxes for infants to sleep in are not enough. We can do much better, and we are here to make it happen."

De Marrais praised the strength and independence of many families she met in San Antonio's shelters.  One father, shortly after learning that his family's mobile home in Rockport had been totally destroyed by the hurricane, welled up with tears of thanks when the Save the Children team provided materials for the couple's two young children.  "Hurricane Harvey has been a humbling experience," he said.

Nine-month-old Malachi peeks over the side of his new pack-and-play crib donated by Save the Children. The family is staying in a hurricane shelter in San Antonio, Texas. (Save the Children photo.)

Save the Children plans to expand its efforts to address the needs of families in Texas shelters as it launches efforts to assist shelters outside the San Antonio area.  In addition, the agency will soon begin setting up Child Friendly Spaces in major shelters.  These spaces are safe, well-supervised areas within shelters where children can play, socialize and begin to recover from the disaster, while allowing their parents to concentrate on addressing the family's immediate and longer-term needs.

In the coming days, Save the Children also plans to provide support to child care and early education programs damaged or destroyed by the storm.

Jeanne-Aimee De Marrais, Save the Children’s senior director for U.S. emergencies, wheels a load of portable cribs for babies into a Salvation Army shelter for homeless families impacted by Hurricane Harvey in Texas. (Save the Children photo.)

To support Save the Children's response efforts around Hurricane Harvey, please go to SavetheChildren.org or text Hurricane to 20222 to donate $25 to the Hurricane Harvey Children's Relief Fund. (A $25 donation will be added to your mobile bill. Messaging & Data Rates May Apply.) 

About Save The Children:
Save the Children gives children in the United States and around the world a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We invest in childhood — every day, in times of crisis and for our future. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

SOURCE: Save the Children

USA: Anti-Racism Demonstrators Offered Free Bail By Nexus Services' National Initiative

Mike Donovan, civil rights activist and president and CEO of Nexus Services, Inc.

Nexus Services, Inc. is offering bail assistance to anyone joining the anti-racism demonstrations against neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and racists that seek to divide Americans rather than unite the United States.

Nexus Services, Inc. will secure the bond and cover bail at no cost to anti-racism demonstrators.

"So long as white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and neo-Confederates continue to flock to our nation's cities in the name of hate and violence, Nexus Services will stand alongside those who exercise their rights to demonstrate against hate and racism," Mike Donovan, civil rights activist and president and CEO of Nexus Services, Inc. said Friday afternoon about the bail-assistance program offered by his company.

"At Nexus Services, we believe in free speech and understand the importance of fighting white supremacist ideology in our systems of government, in our communities, and across our great nation. Our commitment is to ensure that good people standing against hate have the right to be heard, not be jailed.  Above all these demonstrators should not languish in a jail cell because they cannot afford bail," concluded Donovan.

Nexus Services established bail-assistance numbers in all three cities: San Francisco, 628-333-4409; Berkeley, 510-987-8988 and Knoxville, 615-763-5105.  Collect calls will be accepted. A toll-free hotline was also established: 1-800-658-6743. Nexus Services, Inc. will provide bail at no cost to the demonstrator.                                                                                    

Nexus Services, Inc. will not secure bond for anyone wearing masks in public demonstrations that appear to be in violation the "Ku Klux Klan Act" of 1871.

About Nexus Services, Inc.:
Nexus Services, Inc. affirms the inherent worth and dignity of people by becoming a voice to those victimized by the legal system and providing hope to those who have lost it. Nexus Services aids immigrant communities in crisis through sponsoring bonding and pro bono legal services. Nexus guides pretrial and post-conviction offenders to a place of stability and accountability while striving to reduce jail populations. Additionally, Nexus' frontline approach to advocacy, charity, and goodwill in the community facilitates their mission to help clients achieve long-term success and become established members of society. Nexus is committed to standing with their clients and their clients' families in their quest to seek justice and for full integration into society. Nexus is united by the quest for justice and desire to spark change in the world.

SOURCE: Nexus Services, Inc.

Bonus Picture:

See no Nazis, Hear no Nazis, Tweet no condemnation (via Trumpton)

Forget Jon Snow, Watch The Young Women To Find Out How Game Of Thrones Ends

Sky Atlantic/©2017 Home Box Office, Inc

By  Raluca Radulescu, Bangor University

For Game of Thrones fans, the current series has been a bit of a mystery. As the television writers have picked up the storyline where author George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice novels ended, there is, for the first time, no original text to refer back to.

Much virtual ink has been spilled recently over the role of the female characters in the political struggle, yet one of the most crucial themes of this series is going largely undiscussed: the role of children, particularly young girls.

Arya Stark. Sky Atlantic/©2015 Home Box Office, Inc.

The children of Game of Thrones might form the thick-woven fabric of the tapestry we have been watching, but they have not really taken centre stage. There were little nods in past episodes towards the vital importance of the children in Game of Thrones: take the little orphans of King’s Landing, for example, who killed Grand Maester Pycelle of the Citadel – a rather more unusual turn of the plot. Later episodes have been more obvious about the power of children, but it is only now that the series is being so explicit about it.

The latest episode to air, episode six, lays the central role of children and young people on a little more thickly. Without giving too much away, the struggle between Sansa and Arya, the Stark sisters, seemingly comes to a head, while a shocking event involving Daenerys Targaryen causes her once more to tearfully utter the phrase “they are my children”, while telling Jon Snow that she is unable to bear a child of her own. We have also recently heard that current queen of the Seven Kingdoms Cersei is pregnant once more with a new heir to the Lannister line.

Seen but not heard
From the start of the series, and indeed Martin’s novels, the struggle over dictating the future of the Seven Kingdoms has been very similar to that during the real-life Wars of the Roses. Cersei’s naked ambition and her son Joffrey’s stark cruelty (puns intended) remind of Margaret of Anjou. She was the 15th century French queen to the mentally unstable Lancastrian king Henry VI, whose son – allegedly begotten in adultery, though not incest as in Game of Thrones – was Prince Edward.

Like Margaret of Anjou, Cersei uses her reputation – and children – to her advantage. She takes charge of the family fortunes and boldly looks at the future as an opportunity for herself. There’s every chance she’ll don armour at some point, as Queen Margaret herself was rumoured to have done during the Wars of the Roses.

Unlike Margaret, however, Cersei faces a battle with the upcoming dynasties of women. Cersei still believes that she is the most important woman in Westeros, but the younger females we first saw as children have come more into the limelight during this and the last series. Cersei’s power is waning, while other prominent women such as Daenerys, or indeed the young lady Lyanna Mormont – the head of one of the great families of the North – are unafraid to ride into battle. Even Sansa, who Cersei once tried to humiliate and oppress, is now standing in as ruler of the North while her half-brother Jon Snow seemingly prefers his place in the heart of the action.

Jon Snow rides to fight. Sky Atlantic/©2017 Home Box Office, Inc.

Since the first episodes, we have been watching these young women grow and change – but only now is their true significance being made clear. Where once they were shown in the more expected, traditional roles of a medieval female, now they are warriors in their own right. A feisty young Arya has transformed from the lively girl with her sword “needle” to an assassin, a “Faceless Man” trained in the dark arts and haunting Winterfell. Sansa meanwhile has become a different kind of fighter, going from dreams of being a princess to overcoming years of abuse and ultimately emulating her own strong mother, Lady Catlin Stark.

Valar Morghulis: All men must die
Yet Cersei is not that “old” – and potentially still has decades ahead of her to sit on the Iron Throne. If there’s one lesson that can be learned from Lady Olenna of House Tyrell – the wise older woman who tells Daenerys she has survived many powerful men – it is that even when women are no longer young and the focus of attention, they still have some influence to wield. Cersei may have lost her first three children – and the control she had in using them as pawns to her game – but her new pregnancy could very well serve to change that once more.

Ultimately lineages are the most important factor in winning the game of thrones – and it could very well be that Cersei’s new child grows to fight a ruling Daenerys, who, as of episode seven, had not yet named an heir to her throne.

As the battle focuses between the two – or three, if you count Sansa – queens, it has never been more clear that the young female combatants are now far more relevant than the adult male leaders – most of whom have been killed off. As children these women signalled change in dynastic struggles – but now they are grown up, they are heralding a second echelon of much wiser, perhaps untainted rulers: theirs is the future of Westeros.

About Today's Contributor:
Raluca Radulescu, Professor of Medieval Literature and English Literature, Bangor University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

Bonus Image:

For A Primer On How To Make Fun Of Nazis, Look To Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin’s character Adenoid Hynkel was a not-so-subtle nod to Adolf Hitler. (Wikimedia Commons)

By Kevin Hagopian, Pennsylvania State University

White nationalists and neo-Nazis are having their moment. Former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke is back, yet again, in the media spotlight, while newer figures such as white supremacist Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell are broadcasting their views via social media feeds and niche internet channels.

Many Americans are wondering if this resurgent movement should be ignored, feared or fought. What, exactly, is the best antidote for neo-Nazism?

What about laughter?

While the August 12 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia was no joke, the images of armor-clad, tiki-torch-wielding white nationalists did give fodder to late-night talk show hosts and editorial cartoonists.

In a different age, another ascendant white supremacist – Adolf Hitler – used a combination of garbled ideas, stagy phrasing and arch gestures to bewitch much of his nation, even as the rest of the world looked on in disbelief and terror.

While many anti-fascists offered serious and potent arguments against Hitler, comedians like Charlie Chaplin responded to the mortal threat that the Nazis posed in a different way: They used humor to highlight the absurdity and hypocrisy of both the message and its notorious messenger.

Chaplin homes in on his target
In late 1940, producer-director-star Charlie Chaplin released “The Great Dictator.” Often considered Chaplin’s last great film, “The Great Dictator” is the tale of a little Jewish barber in the mythical (but obviously German) nation of Tomania. The barber is mistaken for a dictator modeled after Adolf Hitler named Adenoid Hynkel, and the barber is forced to carry out his impersonation of the German warlord to save his own life.

Hitler’s trademark mustache mimicked Chaplin’s. ( Insomnia Cured Here, CC BY-SA )

The idea of a film satirizing Hitler was one Chaplin had been working on for years. Chaplin was a dedicated antifascist, and was alarmed at Hitler’s ability to captivate the German people. He warned members of the Hollywood community not to underestimate Hitler merely because they found him comical, an effect magnified by Hitler’s unfathomable decision to apparently borrow the most famous mustache in the world – Chaplin’s little black toothbrush – as his own trademark.

Chaplin regarded Hitler as one of the finest actors he had ever seen. (Hitler carefully monitored his public persona, studying photographs and film of his speeches, and taking lessons in public presentation.) Nonetheless, Chaplin, whose international success was based on little people challenging and defeating powerful institutions and individuals, recognized that comedy could be used against Hitler.

“It is paradoxical that tragedy stimulates the spirit of ridicule,” he wrote in his autobiography. “Ridicule, I suppose, is an attitude of defiance.”

Chaplin was warned in 1939 that the film might be refused release in England and face censorship in the United States. Political factions in both nations were anxious to placate the unpredictable, angry Hitler, and “The Great Dictator” could be calculated to enrage the Nazis, who reviled Chaplin as a “Jewish acrobat.”

But Chaplin was a partner in the distribution company United Artists; simply put, he was his own producer, and answerable primarily to himself when it came to risky investments. Due to Chaplin’s perfectionism, all of his films were expensive. “The Great Dictator” was no different: It cost US$2 million to produce, an enormous sum at the time. That perfectionism delayed the film’s distribution until the height of the English Blitz, by which time audiences in the U.S. and England were ready for Chaplin’s humor of defiance. In 1940, the year of its release, “The Great Dictator” was the third highest-grossing film in the U.S.

Exposing a fraud
Much of the comedy of “The Great Dictator” comes from a merciless indictment of those who would follow such a patently idiotic character. The satire mocks Hitler’s absurdity, solipsism and overweening vanity, while also highlighting Germany’s psychological captivity to a political fraud.

All the techniques of the tyrant are on view: the arbitrary demonizing of identity groups, the insistence on mindless loyalty from his followers, the unpredictable behavior toward foreign leaders that ranges from mere abuse to deceit, even the hostility toward science in favor of dogma. (A series of inventors die while demonstrating the patently impossible military technology Hynkel demands, like a bulletproof suit and a parachute hat.) Hynkel is also a casual sexual harasser and grossly overestimates attendance at official functions.

Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Fake German’ speech from ‘The Great Dictator.’

Hynkel bloviates mindlessly and unintelligibly. U.S. and English audiences were already quite familiar with Hitler’s untranslated radio speeches, and Chaplin took advantage of this, making Hynkel’s speeches an amalgamation of gibberish, non sequiturs and vaudeville German dialect humor, as when he shouts, “Der Wienerschnitzel mit da lagerbieren, und das Sauerkraut!” (“The wienerschnitzel with the beer and the sauerkraut!”)

Would Hitler laugh at himself?
The success of “The Great Dictator” spawned a cottage industry of Hitler satire. Some of this work was relentlessly lowbrow, such as the Three Stooges’ short “You Nazty Spy!” (1940), Hal Roach Studios’ short feature “That Nazty Nuisance” (1943), and the Warner Bros.‘ animated shorts “The Duckators” (1942), “Der Fuehrer’s Face” (1942) and “Daffy – The Commando” (1943).

The artistic peak of this cinematic effort was the mordant Ernst Lubitsch comedy “To Be or Not to Be” (1942), in which Hitler is explicitly compared to a ham actor-manager who embarks upon a vanity production of – what else? – “Hamlet.”

Hitler was a huge movie fan, and after the war, novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg found proof that Hitler had actually seen “The Great Dictator.” More intriguingly, Hitler ordered the film to be screened for him a second time. (Of course, ordinary Germans weren’t allowed to watch it.)

Interviewed for a 2001 documentary, Reinhard Spitzy, an intimate of Hitler, said he could easily imagine Hitler laughing privately at Chaplin’s burlesque of him.

The image of Hitler watching “The Great Dictator” a second time – admiring the work of the only public figure whose sheer charisma before the cameras could rival his own – is a compelling one.

Chaplin later said that had he known the extent of the Nazis’ barbarity, he would not have burlesqued them; their crimes were simply too immense for comedy, however trenchant. But perhaps “The Great Dictator” still reminds us of political comedy’s golden mean: The more political movements strive to be taken seriously, the more ripe a subject for satire they become.

About Today's Contributor:
Kevin Hagopian, Senior Lecturer of Media Studies (Cinema Studies), Pennsylvania State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.