World War II looms large over film history. For some people, historical accuracy is where it’s at, and I don’t necessarily disagree. Most of these films need realism to convey the actual history. But sometimes, the stories that stick with us most are the ones that break the rules entirely. Sometimes, writers and directors don’t just retell the war’s greatest battles — they reshape it into something unexpected: WWII satire.
But is WWII even suited for satire? Can humour, absurdity, or fantasy ever truly belong in stories about history’s darkest hours?
I’ll admit: I (Maartje) used to think satire wasn’t my cup of tea. As a creative writer who used to enter competitions, my worst nightmare was drawing “Political Satire” as a genre. I’d never read any, and quite frankly, didn’t even really know what it meant. Poking fun at serious things, I thought. It seemed flippant, cynical, and not at all the kind of storytelling that inspired me to write. I wanted to tell character-driven stories and thought that satire, by definition, meant caricature — and therefore would be incapable of making me feel anything real. But after watching these films, I realised that I didn’t really understand what makes good satire.
Satire, at its best, isn’t just mockery — it works when it sits shoulder to shoulder with something darker. Not dark humour for its own sake, but dark tragedy. It’s the contrast that makes it powerful. Watching Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit, and Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful for Rosie, I gained a newfound appreciation for the genre.
Want more of our chaotic thoughts on Inglourious Basterds? Listen to the full Inglourious Basterds episode!
Inglourious Basterds: Rewriting History Through Fury (Wrong Movie!) and Fantasy
I didn’t know what I was in for when I pressed play on Inglourious Basterds. For one, I kind of hate Tarantino’s violence, so I was ready to straight up dislike this film, had put off watching it for that very reason, had only ever heard the jokes and seen the memes and rolled my eyes when people called it brilliant. But Tarantino writes a revenge fantasy so bold it practically dares you not to cheer when everyone violently dies. Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine, with that ridiculous accent, isn’t here to lecture us about the complexities of war. He’s not even really here to tell us war is hell. He’s here to scalp Nazis and drop one-liners left, right, and center. And yet, underneath the pulp violence and dark, dark humour, there’s something oddly delightful about the film’s emotional pull: the fantasy of justice, finally served. Shoshanna’s burning cinema isn’t just revenge — it flips propaganda and the propaganda-making machine on its head and turns it on the Nazis, a rewriting of history that’s as cathartic as it is ferocious. At times, I felt uncomfortable cheering. But maybe that’s the point.
We unpack all the ways Jojo Rabbit broke and rebuilt our hearts — dive into our full Jojo Rabbit conversation.
Jojo Rabbit: How We Learn Hatred, and How To Unlearn It
If Basterds is about rage and revenge, Jojo Rabbit is about tenderness — a soft love so fragile that it might shatter. Waititi walks a tightrope: a boy in the Hitler Jugend (that’s just like Boy Scouts, right?), a mother, an imaginary friend named Hitler. It’s absurd. It’s hilarious. And then it isn’t. It happens so suddenly, you almost don’t see it coming. Laughter gives way to grief, and grief gives way to a slow, painful kind of hope. Jojo doesn’t win a war with weapons. He wins a much harder one — unlearning what he thought evil was, and choosing love over fear.
I don’t think either of us made it through Life Is Beautiful dry-eyed. Hear our full Life Is Beautiful breakdown.
Life Is Beautiful: A World Of Pretence
Another one of those films I’d only ever heard of… Life Is Beautiful. I remember it being extremely popular, but didn’t know it was set during WWII, or that it was satire. And this one knocked me out. Guido’s endless optimism, his clowning, and his sheer force of joy are irresistible at first. Kind of a Charlie Chaplin figure — but unmistakably Italian. But when the first signs of fascism set in, you can feel things dangerously shift, even if Guido doesn’t. And when the walls of the concentration camp close in, the humour turns into something sharper: a means of survival. Guido isn’t pretending the horror away. He’s fighting it with the only weapon he has left: a story. A game. A lie, told with love so his son might survive a little longer without breaking. A little bit of heartbreaking magic. Life Is Beautiful reminds us that laughter isn’t the opposite of sorrow — sometimes, it’s the deepest expression of it.
So, WWII and Satire, Do They Match?
Is WWII suited for satire? After sitting with these films, I think it is — because satire doesn’t deny the brutality, but sheds light on it in ways realism doesn’t. Tarantino, Waititi, Benigni — none of them tell WWII “straight.” But it works. These films don’t diminish the horror of war; they throw it into sharp relief. They remind us that history doesn’t always have to be told in the same way, and that humour can make us feel tragedy much more deeply.
Explore WWII Satire With Rosie the Reviewer
For our full discussions of these unforgettable films, listen to the episodes below!
