Is there something we don't get? Craze of Nazi chic sweeps Bangkok as teens dress up as cartoon Hitlers



Schoolchildren dressing up as Nazis and a billboard advert showing Hitler were just the start.

Thailand's obsession with so-called 'Nazis chic' just won't go away - despite it provoking anger and astonishment among foreigners there.



C artoon pandas, Teletubbies and Ronald McDonald have all been spotted on show around the capital Bangkok.

'Nazi chic': A shocking new trend has seen Bangkok flooded with cartoonish images of Hitler - including a popular design in which the dictator is merged with red-haired McDonalds mascot Ronald McDonald

The craze has seen more and more teenagers strutting around in T-shirts bearing cartoonish images of the Nazi dictator.

In a particularly popular design, Hitler is transformed into a cartoon Ronald McDonald, the fast-food chain's clown mascot, sporting a bouffant cherry-red hairdo and a stern look.

On another T-shirt the Führer is shown in a lovely panda costume with a Nazi armband.

On yet another he appears as a pink Teletubby with doe eyes, jug ears and a pink swastika for an antenna. He pouts petulantly like a spoiled brat while flashing the Nazi salute.

Shirts cost from 200 baht to 370 baht ($7 to $12) apiece, and some come in matching outfits for couples.

Adolf McDonald's partner is a transvestite with fuchsia hair, lipstick, long lashes and a timid Mona Lisa smile.

Incongruous: Cartoon pandas and Teletubbies are among the characters merged with Hitler in the bizarre fashion trend. The designs feature a characteristic vicious expression and variety of Nazi symbols.



Popularised: Thai Shopkeepers admit that foreign tourists often complain about their Hitler kitsch merchandise - but say the t-shirts are extremely popular with young people

Panda Adolf's manlier doppelganger sports a brown stormtrooper uniform.

The locals might think these T-shirts are funny, but the Israeli ambassador isn't laughing.

'Some foreigners get upset [when they see my T-shirts on sale] - they come to my shop and complain,' one T-shirt seller told CNN News.

He sells his McHitler designs alongside his caricatures of Michael Jackson, Che Guevara and Kim Jong-Il.

'It's not that I like Hitler,' he said. 'But he looks funny and the shirts are very popular with young people.'

But Israel's local ambassador Itzhak Shoham, whose embassy is nearby, isn't amused.

He said: 'You don't want to see memories of the Nazi period trivialised in this manner. It hurts the feelings of every Jew and every civilized person.'

Trivialised? Critics including the local Israeli Ambassador have condemned the caricatures, saying they are offensive to Jews 'and every civilised person'.

Incongruous: Cartoon pandas and Teletubbies are among the characters merged with Hitler in the bizarre fashion trend



On the Khao San Road, Bangkok's backpacker haven, other T-shirt designs boast PhotoShopped prints of the Führer, including one depicting him sunbathing naked on a tropical beach

Last September in the northern city of Chiang Mai, a group of high school students showed up for sport day in homemade Nazi uniforms, complete with swastika armbands and toy guns.

Leading them was a teenage girl dressed in a faux SS uniform with a fake Hitler mustache.

Locals cheered the students merrily from sidewalks as foreign tourists reportedly looked on aghast.

In 2007, hundreds of students at a Bangkok school staged a similar Nazi-themed costume parade.

Following international outcries, teachers at both schools apologised, saying they had no idea the students had planned to dress up as Nazis.