Meet the Guy Who’s Protesting a Maryland Theater’s Production of Mel Brook's The Producers

The Washingtonian ^ | 07/25/2015 | By Benjamin Freed

[SeekAndFind]

Olney Theatre’s production of Mel Brooks’s 2001 musical The Producers only has three more performances, but it’s not going to close without a bit of manufactured controversy. Audience members at Montgomery County playhouse are going to have to walk past a small coterie protesting the show’s play-within-the-play, because, the demonstrators say, it makes light of Adolf Hitler and the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.

“I understand the intent is satire,” says Jeffrey Imm, who is organizing the demonstration through his anti-discrimination group, Responsible for Equality And Liberty. “This is the point of morality: some things we have to recognize as absolute evil. When 6 million people are murdered, we don’t view it with knee-slapping, we view it with reverence.”

In The Producers, which is adapted from Brooks’s Oscar-winning 1968 film of the same name, two crooked Broadway producers endeavor to profit off a critical and commercial flop, which they believe they find in Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden, which portrays Hitler as a flamboyant dandy.

Even though the jokes in The Producers come at the expense of show-business types and Nazis, Imm is not impressed by its humor, or the original Broadway run’s record 12 Tony Awards. Contemporary audiences, he argues, are no longer frightened by genocide.

[Junk Silver]

“When 6 million people are murdered, we don’t view it with knee-slapping, we view it with reverence.”

In a free society we view it however we want to, you pompous jackass.

[Rio]

Springtime for Hitler!

[BenLurkin]

"And I gave my flowers to a big fat cop..."

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

"Rhineland's a fine-land once mooore,

Springtime for Hitler and Germanyyyy,

Look out Europe, we're going on tour."

[goodwithagun]

There used to be a parody of that with Hillary. I’ll try to find it. In the meantime the lyrics were:

Springtime for liberals and Hillary.
Go hug a stem cell today!
Death row must go away, it’s cruel,
That is, unless you pray in school!

[Sparky1776]

Watching Blazing Saddles right now on Encore........maybe for the last time?

[<1/1,000,000th%]

12 million people were murdered.

[rikkir]

Mr. Imm,

[jjotto]

Is it the REAL Blazing Saddles or the PC edited version?

[muir_redwoods]

“When 6 million people are murdered, we don’t view it with knee-slapping, we view it with reverence.”

So, when socialism kills 100 million civilians in the twentieth century alone, we agree to never attempt socialism again, right?

[CtBigPat]

Does this guy know that Mel Brooks is a Jew who fought the Germans in WW2?

Brooks graduated from Eastern District High School[11] and then spent a year at Brooklyn College as a psychology major before being drafted into the army.[9] He attended the Army Specialized Training Program[12] conducted at the Virginia Military Institute[13] (although not actually as a VMI cadet), and served in the United States Army as a corporal in the 1104 Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division defusing land mines[14] during World War II.

[kaehurowing]

“Don’t be a dummy, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi Party.”

[Yogafist]

What do you want to bet this guy votes Democrat?

[stanne]

He apparently never heard Mel Brooks talk about the origin of this film

[Sparky1776]

I’m guessing the original - the n word has been used over a dozen times, the F word once, etc. What did they cut ?

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Moron. Probably has never seen it.

[Dr. Sivana]

He would have had a heck of a time protesting all of humor directed against hitler and Hirohito in WWII while it was happening! Wielded well, it is a potent weapon.

[LukeL]

Don’t ever let this guy know about Hogan’s Heroes.

[sparklite2]

The PC version cuts the flatulence from the campfire scene, for one difference.