Shortly before the Iranian elections Jason Jones shot a series of segments in Iran for The Daily Show called “Behind the Veil” mocking Iran’s evilness. One of the people he interviewed in Iran was Maziar Bahari, a journalist for Newsweek. Bahari was arrested shortly after the elections as part of the crackdown on journalists. Bahari was released a month ago and recently did an interview(10:00) with Fareed Zakaria for GPS.
Jason Jones: The Best F**king Spy Ever
I guess Iranian interrogators don’t have a sense of humor. Who’da thunk?
I can’t wait for the show to bring this up later this week. That should be pretty hilarious.
On hiatus for the holiday - and I don’t think they’ll bring it up when they get back.
I’m trying to remember… didn’t the Japanese show footage of a bumbling Abbott and Costello to their soldiers during WWII as evidence of American military stupidity? Or is that an urban legend? The Jason Jones story reminds me of that.
They’re off this week, but I hope they talk about it next week. As always, fanatics are very bad with sarcasm.
For some reason (or probably for the obvious reason) I read the OP’s name as Ahmadinejad - which would be a cool OP/username combo. 
Bahari is scheduled to be on TDS on Monday. I guess they’re going to talk about it. 
I love the Daily Show…absolutely love it…but come on: do Iranian government officials have a sense of humor? Obviously not, and if they do it’s probably nowhere near “our” sense of humor. Someone somewhere in TDS staff or even Bahari must have realized that that would look suspicious to the Iranian authorities. Autocratic governments don’t usually have the best senses of humor and I should think it would be common sense for someone to not want to put someone else in harm’s way just for the sake of a comedic bit or a sketch. I mean, this is the very same government that publicly hung a teenager for being gay (among other atrocities against its own population). Would they have just laughed it off? People should think these things out more thoroughly, I think.
Bahari knew what he was getting into, even if TDS didn’t. Still, I’m sure Jon feels awful about the whole thing.
Here’s the Jason Jones in Iran clips from the Daily show website.
June 17, 2009: Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Minarets of Menace
June 22, 2009: Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Persians of Interest
June 23, 2009: Jason Jones: Behind the Veil - Ayatollah You So
I liked the man in the last clip who did an impression of Stewart doing an impression of Bush. Found myself wondering if he’s all right.
You forgot the last part: The Kids are Allah Right
maybe not self-deprecating humor.
Maybe a worthwhile thread topic: “which torturer would you prefer: humorless & clinical, or sick & twisted?”
According to Bahari’s article in Newsweek, two others Jason interviewed for the series were also arrested by the government. Coincidence? Probably, since I’m sure they swept up “dissidents” first and looked for justification later. Must still be mildly uncomfortable for the show.
I recall a similar story about the Soviet Union showing troops the Three Stooges to indicate how incompetent yet tough Americans were and therefore difficult to kill. I’ve never been able to verify that and think it is likely an urban legend.