The idea behind the film is probably the same - to take a feared, powerful figure and make him into more of a joke figure, by exaggerating his more extreme or absurd qualities. But although that may have helped with the inspiration, The Dictator is in no way a remake of The Great Dictator.

For one thing, Chaplin's film is of course about Hitler, who was alive and at the height of his power when the film was released in 1940. So the film had an urgency, and a serious message that, because of the different situation, Baron Cohen's film can't have. The main historical inspiration for The Dictator is Muammar Gadhaffi, who was already dead when the film was made. There are elements of other Middle Eastern dictators as well - whereas Chaplin's 'Hynkel' was clearly Hitler, Baron Cohen's dictator is more of a composite figure - and also, as much as many people may have hated Ghadaffi, he never had the global power of Hitler