Is it okay to laugh at Hitler?

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Just read Timur Vermes satirical novel "Er ist wieder da". I rarely read 
stuff from the bestseller list but this one sounded interesting. And its 
huge success is a phenomenon that calls for sociological observation. 
Well, it's not exactly good clean fun, but it contains passages that 
made me laugh really hard. Some of you will have heard about it, and I 
could imagine that the debate - an English translation of the novel is 
in the making - is of interest to many on this list. So here are some links:

http://www.new-books-in-german.com/english/1176/354/354/129002/design1.html
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130417-is-it-okay-to-laugh-at-hitler
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2258178/Hitler-novel-tops-German-chart-Comic-novel-follows-Nazi-leader-falls-asleep-1945-wakes-2011.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-04/hitler-awakes-in-2011-berlin-becomes-youtube-hero.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/hitlers-return-timely-satire-or-a-joke-too-far-8508268.html

Anybody else already read this?

Here comes the book's first good joke (pp. 14-15):

"Vermutlich wirkte ich den Hitlerjungen nicht hilfsbedürftig genug, sie 
machten den Eindruck, als wollten sie ihr Fußballspiel wieder aufnehmen, 
jedenfalls wandte sich der größte nun zu seinen Kameraden um, wodurch 
ich seinen Namen lesen konnte, den ihm seine Mutter auf das geradezu 
grellbunte Sportleibchen gewirkt hatte.
'Hitlerjunge Ronaldo! Wo geht es zur Straße?'"