MovieChat Forums > To Be or Not to Be (1942) Discussion > "Hitler will end up as a cheese"?

"Hitler will end up as a cheese"?

posted 8 years ago by scubadivergeek
2 replies | jump to latest

OK, I dont' understand the gag about Hitler and cheese. It occurs twice in the movie, first in the opening rehearsal, where the boy says that his father says that "They made a brandy out of Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, so Hitler will end up...", and the adjutant finishes the sentence with "Hitler will end up as a cheese", saying that it's "a natural thought", thus leading to Jack Benny questioning what he means by "a natural thought", followed by the adjutant's apoplectic response, ending with an round of "Heil Hitler!" from all three.

Then later in the movie, there's the scene with Tura (masquerading as the Professor) and Colonel Earhardt, basically repeating the above exchange, but with Earhardt saying the entire joke and then having to hastily try to explain what he means, ending with the Heil Hitler.

So my question, what's the deal with the cheese?

[–] swanstep (2769) 5 years ago

Stinky cheese was a standard comedy line/routine in vaudeville and later in lots of relatively low-brow movies e.g., The 3 Stooges. So saying that Hitler will end up as a (notable) kind of cheese is a way of saying that Hitler stinks. Note that one of the most notable cheeses for comedy purposes is Limburger cheese which is legendarily awful-smelling. It smells like foot/body odor or, for playground purposes, like shit. So that's whats really being said in comedy-playground logic: Hitler is like shit and will be remembered as such. (Note that 'cut the cheese' was a common slang expression for 'fart' at least until the '80s & '90s - I don't think I've heard it much since then. That's the same, low comic idea.)

Here's a Three Stooges scene from 1935 where the final gag is that the Limburger cheese's smell is strong enough to knock everyone out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y6YPjcQJ4g
And there's a brilliant, early B-52s song whose wild, main chorus line is, "Why don't you dance with me? I'm not no limburger!":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRuRKirloQ8

Hope that helps.

[–] PaladinNJ (21784) 5 years ago

Thank you. That actually explains a lot. Charles Durning's version in the remake (a pickle) is a lot less subtle.