I feel when I watch these things like I’m getting a taste of how dismal life must be in fundamentalist states like Iran generally: slow, joyless, predictable, teeming with scapegoats. You see the “punchline” coming here after 20 seconds, but it just drags on and on and on and on until finally evil Uncle Sam and his orthodox Jewish lackey are vanquished and the Iranian assumes his rightful place as world conductor. And yet, oddly, the women in the audience aren’t covered. I guess that part comes later.

Too bad they didn’t do it Pixar-style. That would have been awesome. Exit question one: How long would it have taken a skilled editor to tell this story? Sixty seconds? Exit question two: Are Iranians so well steeped in tales of American oppression that they know who the man in the feathered headdress is? Click the image to watch.

Update: They’re quite serious about conducting the world symphony, it seems. Although rest assured, they’ll be telling us next week that this is the result of a bad translation — even though it was translated by Iran’s official news service:

“Once Iran is established as a nuclear state, all the world nations would come under the political flag of Iran; enemies know this point and due to the same reason they have mobilized all their possibilities and capabilities to prevent this event from happening in Iran and in the world,” Ahmadinejad said.

Meanwhile, there’s panic on the Iranian stock market thanks to Mahdi’s decision to cut interest rates despite spiralling inflation.