Backstory: Take 'mein Führer'... please!

At first, few people turned up at his shows. Then, in the late 1990s, a wave of neo-Nazi fervor swept Germany's ragged east. This prompted a lot of soul-searching by ordinary Germans, and Mr. Somuncu's work gained some media attention. By 2000, crowds at his performances were spilling into the streets, and death threats started pouring in from neo-Nazis outraged that a Turk would dare ridicule their leader. Skinheads often burst in on his show with "Sieg Heil!" salutes. At one point, Somuncu was forced to wear a bulletproof vest on stage.

Around this time, a few bold comics and artists began to follow his lead despite conventional wisdom that even touching Hitler could endanger their careers. Some remain skeptical of Nazi humor. "It's a topic that doesn't bring you any further," says Achim Rohde, who organizes the Cologne Comedy Festival, Germany's biggest live comedy event. "We don't do it and we never will."

But a growing number of comedians are taking the Hitler plunge. Many, like Somuncu, say they are reacting to the way Hitler is normally portrayed in Germany – as pure, larger-than-life evil.

"Comedy deflates this historical giant," says Moritz Netenjakob, who plays Hitler in the Cologne production, "My Big Fat Turkish Family."

And what better way to cut the Führer down to size than by showing him sitting on the toilet or fumbling in bed? What's more, this kind of bawdy slapstick tickles German audiences because they aren't used to seeing Hitler get cheeky treatment.

Many comedians also play on the discomfort Germans feel about banned Nazi symbols. In "Mein Führer," swastikas adorn everything from the official hairstylist's smock to the Christmas trees.

A few artists also use Hitler humor to poke fun at modern Germany. Last June, when Germany was hosting the soccer World Cup, director Erik Gedeon staged a production mocking national hopes pinned to the event. The play, called "Mein Ball," begins with Hitler and his cronies huddled in the Führer's bunker preparing for suicide. Then suddenly Hitler hits on a scheme to save his empire from ruin: "Germany should be football world champion!" The idea moves them to burst into a Broadway-style Elvis Presley medley, with a hip-swiveling Hitler belting out "Blue Suede Shoes."

Such scenes still have the power to offend. "Mein Ball" had some theatergoers in stitches, but others stomped out or booed. Similarly, stand-up comics say Hitler gags can be an easy way to lose the room.

Many Germans, especially the elderly, feel this brand of wit is cause for alarm.

"The danger is that the whole picture of the Third Reich becomes more and more blurred, and the horror gets lost," says Gertrud Koch, a cinema studies professor at the Free University of Berlin.

But among younger Germans, Hitler humor is the rage. Mr. Moers's new comic book, "Der Bonker," which shows Hitler talking jive with Prince and snorting cocaine with Mahatma Gandhi, is a hit. It's companion DVD features a cartoon Führer sitting on the toilet grumbling about Winston Churchill. The video has been posted on YouTube and viewed more than 4 million times.

But comedians aren't the only ones who are rethinking Hitler. In recent years, a number of German books and films have begun plumbing his humanity – among them the 2004 movie "The Downfall," which offered a close-up look at his anguished last days. In his recent book, renowned historian Götz Aly explores the Führer's role in building Germany's social programs. And some predict Hitler will keep taking new forms.

"He will keep popping up – in books, in movies, in humor," says Somuncu. "Without Hitler, there is no Germany."

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