Political humor being what it is, they could be exaggerating or even making it up. It’s merely the first thing I could come up with to link the silliness.
Is/was there a cheese with a name similar to Adolph or Hitler?
Yea, jokes usually have to play off a well known myth though. Al Gore never said he invented the internet, but its still a staple of Al Gore jokes because its a famous story. A joke about Gore being a drunk wouldn’t make any sense then, since drunken Gore isn’t really even a popular myth.
Course, the movie came out in the 40’s, so maybe drunken Napoleon and fat Bismark were popular tropes that have since faded, though I kinda doubt it, since an alcoholic Napoleon is kinda hard to even make plausible.
I wonder …
Is this actually a real joke of the era or is it only from the movie?
If it’s just about the movie, then it could be that there is no reason for the joke at all, except to be something silly and lame. Any ref to the joke that isn’t the movie?
I’ve always assumed that there was some sort of pun involved, lost to us now. Lubitsch was certainly capable of making a better joke.
Maybe the joke is about the parents?
Bismarck herring was named after Bismarck as a marketing tool, after it was discovered that he liked the stuff. I’m not sure how Napoleon brandy came to be called that, but as it’s meant to convey a sense of prestige, I’m sure it’s not an insulting reference to the emperor.
In fact, if anything, the joke would be even lamer if the other two names were derogatory. The twist comes from the fact that the first two items were named after greatly admired leaders as a sort of tribute. If they were also insults, there would be no joke.
huh
That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t MEAN anything.
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I interpreted it as Napoleon liked brandy, Bismark liked herring, and Hitler (since he’s a rat) liked cheese. Not that either of the other two guys mentioned were animals.
This joke is insulting to cheese!
But it was clear in the movie that it was an obvious insult. And that it was supposed to be a common joke.
That was a joke. From an older, very hard to find the answer question.
Perhaps the idea is that if Hitler brought peace, everybody would say, “Chee!” . . .
How about this idea: France is not stereotypically known for its brandy nor is Germany known for its herring. Therefore, the food item Hitler will lend his name to will also be something Germany is not known for: cheese.
You have to know a little about American slang from this time period.
Cheese was a slang term during this time period for human dung…So the punchline is calling Hitler a “Piece of excrement”
A slang expression for when someone broke wind in a group and someone smells it was, “Who cut the cheese!”
Interesting. I’d never heard that “cheese” meant poop, but the expression “who cut the cheese?” still exists to this day. It’s kind of cool how some things survive and some don’t.
Huh? Cognac? Armagnac? (And obviously Napoleon, which is a brand of cognac)
More generally, “piece of cheese” was a slang insult to imply that somebody was useless, insignificant, or contemptible, as in this example from the early 1920s:
The movie line isn’t suggesting that any type of cheese might actually be named after Hitler; it’s just calling Hitler a “piece of cheese”.
Okay, I had never heard this particular slang term before but it fits the joke and makes it work. So thanks for solving the mystery.
In the Mel Brooks remake, they changed it to “a pickle… because he’s such a sourpuss!”
Apparently Mel either didn’t get the cheese joke either or else got it but didn’t think it was funny.