Due to the tragic dimension of the horrors committed by the Nazi regime many people have difficulty taking a comic look at Hitler and Nazism. Every time someone does it is accused of downplaying importance and trivializing the Holocaust, but the truth is that there is a long history of jokes about it. In this book, the first on comedy and satire in the Third Reich, Herzog brings together all the manifestations of humor: caricatures, cabaret, variety shows, entertainment, movies, pop songs and musicals. In this way it shows us how the ridiculous image of the Fuhrer was by no means a post-war invention.

In the early years of the regime many Germans mocked Hitler and other senior officials, a fascinating and terrifying story: the suppression of the anti-fascist cabaret scene of the 1930s, the jokes during World War II, the collections of "whispered jokes" published in the media at the end of the war, the many Germans imprisoned and executed for gossip about the Fuhrer and its surroundings. The jokes collected here also show that not all Germans were hypnotized by Nazi propaganda.