Alex Salmond, Tom Harris and Downfall

I have to confess I feel ever so slightly sorry for Tom Harris, the Labour MP, who has resigned from his post as the Labour Party’s new media adviser.

Harris posted a Downfall-spoof on YouTube, depicting the Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond as Hitler.

It appears to have caused a bit of a stir, and not only among the legendarily humorless Scots. Media outlets everywhere are currently wheeling out the big guns (or not) to tell us all why this is so inappropriate.

Well, yes and no. I personally thought Harris’ video was quite amusing and probably made a fair point about Salmond. Though it wasn't as funny as the one with Gordon Brown as Hitler...

TV's experts seem keen to go further than just slapping Harris for Salmond baiting, suggesting that making jokes about Hitler is in some way mocking the Holocaust.

I wonder what they make of The Great Dictator, then?

Charlie Chaplin's film mocked Hitler and dictators generally, to an extent in the same way that the Downfall clips do.

Chaplin made the Nazis look ridiculous, as far as he could defusing the aggression of all the goostepping, saluting and bullying and making it appear deranged.

Those getting irate about those Downfall clips should bear that in mind.