By the 1960s, the Cold War had inspired countless B-movies and creature features that embodied the Western fear of a looming threat from the East. Some films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Panic in Year Zero more obviously addressed the fear of the times, marketing their films as "doubly shocking because it can happen to you!" Others, such as Astro Zombies and Day of the Triffids leaned further into the bizarre otherworldly ideas this fear gave way to. In 1962, director David Bradley (not the same David Bradley who played Filch in Harry Potter) shot a World War 3 movie called The Return of Mr. H. The H stood for Hitler, and the film would soon become one of the most obscure running jokes in the long-running TV sitcom The Simpsons.
The film was released in 1963 under the new title of Madmen of Mandoras and follows surviving Nazi officials now living in South America, as many Nazis did after the war. In the fictional country of Mandoras, it is revealed that some Nazis possess the preserved head of Adolf Hitler in a jar, and by kidnapping an American scientist to help them access the Führer's mind, they plan on taking over the world. After its limited run at drive-ins, Paragon Films acquired the rights and arranged for some UCLA students to shoot another 18 minutes of footage for the film. With this new runtime being over 90 minutes, Paragon was able to charge a higher fee for the film when they sold it to television, as outlined in Charles P. Mitchell's book The Hitler Filmography. This "new" 1968 TV movie was given yet another title, this time being called They Saved Hitler's Brain, and it was dubbed as one of the worst films ever made.
'The Simpsons' Has Made Many References to 'They Saved Hitler's Brain'
The advent of "so bad they're good" movies is nothing new, and it's understandable that they could become a running joke within workplace friendships. It's clear the creatives behind the longest-running animated sitcom are not above this either, as The Simpsons has made several references to They Saved Hitler's Brain. In Season 7's "Marge Be Not Proud," Bart steals a videogame from the local Try-N-Save, only to get banned from the store and disappoint his mother. The game he steals is called "Bonestorm," but other games visible in the scene include "Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge," and, yup, you guessed it... "Save Hitler's Brain."
They Saved Hitler's Brain is referenced again later that same season in an episode titled "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish,'" a throwback to Grampa Simpson's time fighting in World War II. At one point, Abe recalls a time he had the Führer in his sights, and before pulling the trigger, he utters to himself "Now they'll never save your brain, Hitler!" To help us understand the reason behind this recurring reference in the show we need to cross-reference the creatives behind each episode. Both aforementioned episodes are written and directed by different people. The former was written by Mike Scully and directed by Steven Dean Moore while the latter was written by Jonathan Collier and directed by Jeffrey Lynch. Both episodes were written under showrunners Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, suggesting perhaps the idea started with them.
'The Simpsons' TV Series, the Comics, and 'Futurama' All Reference 'They Saved Hitler's Brain'
The Simpsons' references to They Saved Hitler's Brain also extend to titles, such as the Season 10 episode 'They Saved Lisa's Brain' which was written by Matt Selman under Mike Scully as showrunner. Could Scully have been continuing the joke's legacy from his time in Oakley and Weinstein's writers' room? This would have been written approximately at the end of 1998, not too long after Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein left the show after Season 8. The Simpsons also titled one of their Bongo Comics stories 'They Fixed Homer's Brain' in 1996's Simpsons Comics #27, the same year as Season 7 aired.
It's clear that Oakley and Weinstein championed this running gag at the very least, but it's surely no coincidence that the writing duo's first episode as part of the writers' room was in Season 4, the same year as the show's earliest reference to They Saved Hitler's Brain. The Simpsons made its first reference to this obscure movie in Season 4's "Duffless," when Hitler's pickled head is seen in a jar on a table during a Barney Gumble scene. This type of imagery is familiar to fans of animated Matt Groening shows by now, with the preserved heads of history's famous faces featured regularly in Futurama. Futurama has an even more specific reference to They Saved Hitler's Brain than just its pickled heads, when the Professor states "Everyone's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great white shark, ooh, suddenly you've gone too far!" After leaving The Simpsons, Oakley and Weinstein worked as consulting producers on Futurama, albeit after Futurama had made this specific reference.
It's Not Just Matt Groening's Shows That Reference 'They Saved Hitler's Brain'
Although this 1960s B-movie may be obscure, it's been referenced similarly in several different media throughout the years. Hitler's brain appears attached to a gorilla's body in the Savage Dragon comic book series, and the film was also used as inspiration for a 1988 Action Comics story in which Lex Luthor clones himself, later re-released as They Saved Luthor's Brain!. They Saved Hitler's Brain has been referenced by several musical artists too, such as Local H's song "They Saved Reagan's Brain" and the LA punk scene's Angry Samoans' song "They Saved Hitler's C*ck." The Dead Kennedys referenced it too, in their song "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now." The lyrics detail a recipe for a fictional cocktail, the Trickie Dickie Screwdriver; "Two parts purple Kool-Aid and a jigger of formaldehyde from the jar with Hitler's brain in it."
"They Craved Duckman's Brain" was the title of a 1996 episode of the Jason Alexander-led animated series Duckman, again leading us to wonder whether there was something in the water in animation writers' rooms in 1996. They Saved Hitler's Brain gets referenced in the card game "Illuminati: New World Order" and also in an issue of Flaming Carrot Comics where the Flaming Carrot must face an army of cloned Hitler heads. It's clear for all its faults, They Saved Hitler's Brain has made an impact among cult cinema lovers and content creators alike. Its memorable title and outlandish premise won not only several "worst film ever" monikers over the years, but it earned the film infamy that exceeded that of its contemporaries. Thanks, in no small part, to The Simpsons in particular, this film could have been otherwise forgotten, but instead, it's still demanding attention 60 years after its original release. You could almost say The Simpsons saved They Saved Hitler's Brain!