Bluesky bunker video

This video shows the bunker scene from the German movie Downfall where Hitler has his fit of rage, often used for memes and parodies. In this version of the meme, Hitler reacts to hearing the news of the social media platform Bluesky's rapid growth.

The original scene and its meme popularity

Downfall is a German historical war film released in 2004, about the fall of Berlin in 1945. Its original title is Der Untergang. The film was written and produced by Bernd Eichinger and directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. The leading role of Adolf Hitler is played by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz.

Over the years it has become immensely popular to make use of various scenes from the movie to create parodies and internet memes. The scene I am commenting here is one where Hitler becomes enraged after hearing that SS commander Felix Steiner’s counterattack isn’t happening, as Hitler had ordered and expected.

The events of the scene in its original context of the film can be explained like this: It’s April 1945 and the Red Army is 40 kilometers from Nazi headquarters in Berlin. General Hans Krebs explains the situation. Hitler remains calm at first, assuming that SS commander Felix Steiner’s Panzer divisions are ready to repel the Soviets.

In reality, Steiner refused to go into battle, convinced that he would be defeated. General Alfred Jodel steps in and says as much. This makes the dictator go completely silent for a while, then asks for everyone to leave the room except for Jodl, Krebs, and two other high-ranking generals. We see that Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann stay behind as well.

As soon as only these men are left standing in the room is when Hitler, played by Ganz, has his famous meltdown. It’s a magnetic, captivating performance both in its physical vigor and emotional intensity, which likely has contributed to its wide variety of re-use in popular culture.

In most cases one could argue that the type of parody that internet memes convey when they borrow from this film serve as a tribute to the original work, honoring the filmmakers and actors for their stellar performance.

Meme creation

The most common way of applying the meme format is exemplified below in the Bluesky bunker video. The sound and dialogue of the scene is kept in original form, with everyone of course speaking German. The meme creator then simply adds captions that do not mirror the actual dialogue but instead make it seem that the people in the scene are talking about some other topic entirely, and this is what Hitler reacts to. Sometimes the meme will carry on the idea that it is Hitler reacting, but in other cases Hitler – and his outrage – will tend to signify another person or group of people who are very upset about a topic of choice.

Because the scene has no background music it is also easier for meme creators to cut or edit the clip to, for example, make the scene more compact or engaging for the purpose of the message that is being conveyed.

The humorous effect of the clip is of course amplified if the viewer does not understand the German being spoken. The captions can feel almost natural – conveying a message that fits with the on-screen acting. But at the same time they also feel wholly out-of-place – because they are pointedly not true – and this is why so many people find them funny. The humor is further underscored by the intensity of Ganz’ acting, which often becomes over the top in relation to the topic and dialogue the meme creator has chosen for their captions.

Transcript of Bluesky bunker video

In the scene, the generals are explaining events of the war to Hitler and he reacts strongly to the news that Steiner’s attack never happened. The whole point of the meme, however, is of course to allude to something else entirely – often something from current news and events. In this case the captions alongside the original sound from the video, give the impression that they are talking about Bluesky.

The dialogue is as follows:

Officer 1 (pointing on a map around the areas of Berlin): "They are coming to Bluesky from LinkedIn, from Mastodon, from Threads and also from X. Apparently there is this timeline that is just chronological, and people are talking about their everyday boring lives again.”

AH: "No matter really. It's only the little woke crowd."

(officers look nervously at each other)

Officer 1: “Chief Twit. We have lost…”

Officer 2: “We have lost 20% of active users. And Bluesky is number one in all the app stores.”

(AH looks troubled. He shakily and slowly removes his glasses)

AH: "These men will stay here: Sacks, Dorsey, Spiro, and Page.”

(long pause as people move out of the room)

AH: “Gentlemen, what the hell!!!” Why the hell am I listening to you?! You assured me long ago that Bluesky was never going to be a threat to us!! Their CEO is not even a billionaire…

I gave everyone what they wanted, blue ticks, free speech and the best AI bot Grok! And now you are telling me Bluesky has a chronological timeline like a platform from the dark ages!!”

Officer 3: "Chief Twit, I think it's also maybe Mark Hamill who are leading people there…”

AH: "Luke Skywalker?! He is a space joke!”

Officer 3: "Chief Twit, he is a legend to many of us…”

AH: "The only one who knows space here is me. I sent a friggin' car to space. You have lost it."

AH: "We wouldn't even be talking about this woke echo chamber if you all hadn't dropped the ball completely on making X into a bank service. I told everyone it would happen in 2024.

I've been busy saving all of us by running million dollar giveaways and becoming friends with the next president.

I've even focused on becoming the world's number one Diablo player, and what have you all been doing?

You're not controlling the narrative!

You've been letting people think on their own again. Like they're autonomous."

(he sits down, exhausted on a chair, but beats his chest at these next words)

AH: "I've been staying awake. Tweeting day and night. My words. My gospel. Feeding the machine.

(the scene shifts to the people standing outside the room, one woman is sobbing and another woman comforts her)

Woman: "It's okay. I can find you a Starter Pack."

Footnotes

• Chief Twit is in reference to how Elon Musk referred to himself upon taking over Twitter.
• Elon Musk is indeed regarded as the top Diablo player.
• A Starter Pack is a feature on Bluesky that contains a list of accounts, often related to a certain topic, that lets users quickly follow the entire list of accounts in one click.
• Mark Hamill has left X for Bluesky on November 17 but was not the first celebrity to do so.
• "Echo chamber" has been used by critics to refer to Bluesky. There is no real evidence to support this opinion, and no single definition of "echo chamber" to serve the argument.

More examples of Downfall memes

These videos are hosted on YouTube:

• No Twitter for Hitler (Twitter is down again)
• Hitler reacts to Disney buying Marvel
• Everyone forgot his birthday