Hans Landa Hiding Enemies Of The State Meme Template
This is the “You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not?” format from Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds. In the opening sequence, SS officer Hans Landa interrogates French farmer Perrier LaPadite, who is sheltering the Jewish Dreyfus family under his floorboards. Know Your Meme documents the still/phrase format’s spread as a meme in August 2019, based on a Reddit post about childhood hide-and-seek; later versions replace “enemies” with a different target. This context is Nazi persecution and threatened violence, so use the format only for harmless fictional or everyday concealment; do not make Holocaust victims, Jewish people, or real persecution the joke.
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How to use this meme template
What the Hans Landa Hiding Enemies Of The State meme means
This is the “You Are Sheltering Enemies of the State, Are You Not?” format from Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds. In the opening sequence, SS officer Hans Landa interrogates French farmer Perrier LaPadite, who is sheltering the Jewish Dreyfus family under his floorboards. Know Your Meme documents the still/phrase format’s spread as a meme in August 2019, based on a Reddit post about childhood hide-and-seek; later versions replace “enemies” with a different target. This context is Nazi persecution and threatened violence, so use the format only for harmless fictional or everyday concealment; do not make Holocaust victims, Jewish people, or real persecution the joke.
A wide film still shows Hans Landa seated at a table in a dark farmhouse interior, wearing a Nazi SS uniform and looking calmly toward someone off-frame. The active image has two generic caption regions: one above the still and one below it. There are no speech bubbles or baked-in words in this asset.
How the joke works
Use the two caption regions to form one mock-formal accusation. Slot 1 (top) identifies the harmless thing or secret being hidden, usually in the frame “You are sheltering [X],” or “You are hiding [X],”. Slot 2 (bottom) completes the poised confirmation “are you not?” or a similarly formal follow-up. The theatrical politeness and serious delivery should be disproportionate to the trivial target. Keep the two lines grammatically connected; do not turn this into a real accusation or invoke actual Nazi persecution for humor.
- Top caption: name the harmless concealed item, secret, or target and begin the formal accusation (“You are sheltering [X],”).
- Bottom caption: complete the mock-formal confirmation (“are you not?”) or a similarly restrained follow-up.
Caption examples
- YOU ARE SHELTERING THE LAST SLICE OF CAKE,
- ARE YOU NOT?
The lines form the recognizable formal accusation about a harmless, specific hidden item.
- HANS LANDA IS ASKING A QUESTION
- THAT IS THE WHOLE MEME
This describes the scene instead of completing the formal accusation pattern.
Situations it fits
- A friend hiding the last snack or dessert
- A harmless secret someone is obviously keeping
- A low-stakes item hidden from a roommate or family member
- A playful workplace joke about a missing file or unfinished optional task
When this format does not fit
- Do not leave the two fields as unrelated sentences; together they should read as one accusation and confirmation.
- Do not use Jewish people, Holocaust victims, real persecuted groups, or real political violence as the joke.
- Do not cast Hans Landa as admirable or treat the historical Nazi context as harmless; keep the parody target an ordinary hidden item or secret.
- Do not write an actual threatening accusation about a real person.
