Iran boss no laughing matter

BostonHerald.com

The international comedy circuit will lose one of its brightest stars when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who’s been appearing in New York City, steps down as president of Iran.

Ahmadinejad’s term ends next year, and as much as he would like to continue, under Iranian law he is barred from a third term. Not that Iran’s ruling clerics pay much attention to the law, but it’s no secret that they will not be unhappy to see the boisterous, outspoken and openly ambitious Ahmadinejad go.

He stayed in office last time only because of a blatantly rigged election that set off weeks of demonstrations that deeply unsettled the regime, which, until then, seemed to have no idea how deeply unpopular it was.

So this past week may have been Ahmadinejad’s final appearance at one of his favorite forums for his comedic stylings, the United Nations.

The U.S. walked out on his first speech of the week because of his “paranoid theories and repulsive slurs against Israel.” Maybe his humor suffered in translation.

He hit the ground running almost immediately on his arrival in New York. First off was a riff on the Iranian government’s death threat against author Salman Rushdie for allegedly blaspheming Islam.

Ahmadinejad coyly refused to say whether the Rushdie threat was still in effect. Joshed the Iranian: “Is he here in the United States? You shouldn’t broadcast that.” Next he turned to Israel, which he sees as “a few occupying Zionists” who have no right to exist in the Mideast — or maybe, in Ahmadinejad’s opinion, anywhere else, either. As you might see, his humor is something of an acquired taste.

He also did a turn in which he envisioned Israel bullying the U.S. to get it to attack Iran and make good on “the continued threat by uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation.” With his usual sense of timing, he chose Yom Kippur to share these thoughts with the U.N.

Ahmadinejad professes to be puzzled by Israeli threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Maybe it’s because of Iran’s continuous threats to wipe Israel off the map. No sense of humor, those Israelis.

One of the prices the Iranian president has paid for getting crosswise with the clerical hierarchy is that the hard-liners have been systematically jailing his supporters. The president was barely wheels-up for New York when his top press adviser was jailed for allegedly insulting supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Iranians are rightly curious as to what their president will do once he’s out of office. At 55, he feels he’s too young to retire from politics altogether. Besides, he has a grand plan to create a new world order free of the “hegemony of arrogance.” Always a great kidder, our Mahmoud.

Dale McFeatters is a syndicated columnist.