This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost Australia, which closed in 2021.

This Satirical News Site Sort Of Predicted A Kid Dressing Up As Hitler

Life shouldn't always imitate art.
Life imitates parody.
BrokenNews.com.au
Life imitates parody.

Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. Or in this case, parody.

An Alice Springs college has been forced to apologise after granting permission to a student to dress up for Book Week as Adolf Hitler.

Not only that, but the child was among those awarded best dressed for imitating the Fuhrer, and the school had been hosting students from a Melbourne Jewish college.

But here's where the story gets weird (if it wasn't already).

Today is September 9.

On August 27, The West Australian revealed that a school in Perth also had to apologise after a student won first prize for dressing as Hitler for a school costume party.

On August 26, a day earlier, an article appeared on the satirical news site BrokenNews.com.au about, well, a student dressing up as Hitler.

The headline reads: 'Mum defends child's Adolf Hitler book week costume'.

The Huffington Post Australia spoke to Broken News editor Chris Urquhart, and he was as stunned by the coincidence as anyone was about the real story itself.

The parody article, published on August 26.
BrokenNews.com.au
The parody article, published on August 26.

"In the wake of the controversies over children's costumes for Book Week parades last month, we published a parody article about a child being dressed as Adolf Hitler for the book week parade," he told HuffPost Australia.

"Everything about the story was made up, as are all the stories on our site. We never thought anyone would actually dress their child as Hitler for a children's book week parade. It was a parody and satire.

"The reports that a child has actually been dressed as Hitler for a book week event in Alice Springs completely blow our mind and are deeply concerning. It goes to show that truth is often stranger than fiction - and in this case, a million times more ridiculous.

"But it does show us that Broken News is much better at predicting the future than most clairvoyants."

There's a pretty simple take-away from this. Children dressing as Hitler, and we can't believe we need to say this, should only exist within the confines of satire and not in real life.

Just... don't dress up as Hitler. There. Easy.

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