Ghost Hunters International is the sister series to the US-based "Ghost Hunters" (also on SyFy). The premise of Ghost Hunters is simple: "paranormal investigators" travel to various supposedly "haunted" locations, film each other walking around and attempting to provoke ghosts from the ether, and then analyze the footage looking for anything suspicious. They call out to empty rooms ("are there any spirits here? Let yourselves be known!"), and their "investigations" never fail to turn up a creaking floorboard, a pocket of cold air, or a distant shadow. It's all absurd, of course: what they record is tantamount to white noise, random blips of data wrapped in a creepy old abandoned warehouse. They were ably torn apart by South Park on these grounds.
It's a showy and embarrassing spectacle, but generally manages to avoid the sort of tastelessness that can inevitably arise when the dead are bandied about for our collective amusement. This upcoming Wednesday, though, they're airing a new episode entitled "Hitler's Ghost" that will, apparently, feature a search for -- you guessed it -- Hitler's ghost.
Seriously though. Like, his ghost ghost.
There is a real, contextual meaning to the phrase "Hitler's ghost," which is that the memories of the Third Reich still haunt millions of those affected by his policies. As in, "Hitler's ghost still haunts millions of modern-day Germans who struggle to cope with their national heritage." Or "Hitler's ghost still haunts those who suffer from widespread discrimination, bias, or bigotry." He was an embodiment of humanity's darkest corners; to anyone who cares to consider what he did, he is a specter all too real.
It's definitely not a subject that shouldn't be talked about; Nazi Germany happened, and we all have to understand its very real and relevant lessons. Hitler rose to power just 77 years ago, and while he was literally holding death panels and euthanizing hundreds of thousands of mentally ill inmates, Ted Williams batted .406. He may have died in 1945, but he didn't invent what he espoused, nor did those ideas perish alongside him; the concept of eugenics was not unique to the Nazi party, and his ideologies continue live on across the globe.
But can it really be considered acceptable to exploit his legacy -- achieved only through the systematic slaughter of over seventeen million people -- for cheap cable TV thrills?
And do you really want to be bringing up Hitler -- or, for that matter, attempting to literally bring him back -- just to make money?
South Park has frequently called upon Hitler's memory, but these invocations remind us only that his ideas were unmistakably horrific, and furthermore, that we should remain vigilant, for the hatred and prejudice behind his philosophy can often be found, hidden or disguised, in modern-day issues. When Cartman dresses up as Hitler after seeing "The Passion of the Christ," Trey Parker and Matt Stone are making real and relevant commentary about the dangers of propaganda and of subscribing to radical or subversive religious beliefs.
The Ghost Hunters episode is doing something else entirely: as a documentary-style program, there's little to no humor involved in the show, nor are there morals or lessons to be relayed. They are quite literally seeking Adolf Hitler himself, and in doing so, suggesting that some part of his individual existence may still be out there somewhere, in ghost form.
If this sounds ridiculous, it's because it is ridiculous. It reduces Hitler, and everything we associate with him, to a farce. Even if it scares viewers, it does so not because horrifying evils like him exist in the world. It does so because maybe, somewhere out there, Hitler goes bump in the night.
Hitler isn't a difficult man to find. He's is in gay-marriage bans, in the genocide in Rwanda, and in the burning of mosques. He's is in the assassination of abortion doctors, in unprovoked beatings of homeless people, and in the KKK. Hitler is not, however, in your closet or under your bed. He was a real monster; ghosts are fictitious. If you're going to dredge up his memory, to drag his chilling face out in front of the world he forever wounded, it had better be for a damned good reason. There are plenty of such reasons; none of them involve shouting "boo!"
sleep tight baby
sleep tight, sleep tight baby, sleep tight
outside it's my shitty car silohuette backlit by lightning
then came the flood, room fills with mud
mouth fills with blood
it's time that i tell you where the angels come from,
i promise to keep you warm 'til they arrive
sleep tight baby
sleep tight, sleep tight baby, sleep tight
- alpha consumer