I don't get this joke about Hitler

[terentii]

@Sampiro

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.

Most likely, no one in the audience would have gotten the allusion, since the slang term was no longer au courant. I certainly wouldn’t have.

In line with the above, Hitler was notorious for his flatulence. He apparently had something like irritable bowel syndrome, aggravated by his vegetarian diet. After one meeting with some particularly important aristocrat and potential Party backer in the '20s or '30s, she leaned over to a servant and said sotto voce “Open a window, please. It stinks in here!”

[GIGObuster]

@Kimstu

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”.

I think I get it, this is actually like those old fashion bad words/line substitutes, like “Oh Sugar!” “Fiddlesticks” to replace Oh shit and fuck. “piece of cheese” seem to be a bad word substitute for the common insult of calling someone a “piece of shit”

[Sam_A.Robrin]

Possibly the idea is that Swiss cheese is full of holes, and they’d like to see some gunmen put him in the same condition …?

[Colibri]

@Popular_Culture_Fan

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!”

@Infovore

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.

“Who cut the cheese” referred to the fact that many kinds of cheese (like Limburger) are very stinky. Because of this the phrase was a euphemism for “Who farted?” Cheese wasn’t actually a slang term for crap.

[mlees]

Would you like a slice of Hitler on that sandwich?

[Lucas_Jackson]

@Snowboarder_Bo

My favorite Hitler joke: Why didn’t Hitler drink whiskey?

It made him mean.

I know I’m late for the party, but that was funny.

[Lucas_Jackson]

@mlees

Would you like a slice of Hitler on that sandwich?

No thanks, it gives me gas.

[Sampiro]

Though in fact, Hitler became a tea kettle.

[detop]

@olivesmarch4th

This joke is insulting to cheese!

But only to non-aryan cheese.

[macbergie]

I am NOT bragging, but I have an M.A. in folklore, and I actually collect slang from the past. (In the 1930s and 1940s, “Everything’s jake” meant "Everything’s just fine.) So you’re right: a piece of cheese was a fool, a jerk; but it was also a humorous euphemism for excrement.

[macbergie]

You’ve got it, Winnipeg. In those days, “a piece of cheese” meant excrement. Today, “to slice of cut cheese” is a humorous euphemism for breaking wind. Fart.

[macbergie]

What happened at Hitler’s last golf game!

He ended up in the bunker!

[Mike_Mabes]

@Simplicio

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.

Al Gore was so boring, his secret service code name was Al Gore.