At funerals in Iran, there is a tradition. To show respect for the dead, you toss money at their coffin during the funeral procession. For important people, you toss money at their gravesite too. This is collected and given to the poor. When Khomeini died, this tradition was observed, but with one small addition: the bills were wrapped in shit. Yes: they threw shit at the corpse of Khomeini. This gives you an idea of how popular he really was.
My grandmother-in-law, who lived in Iran was recently buried. My mother-in-law traveled back to her homeland to visit the grave-site (in the same cemetery as Khomeini's tomb). This happened to be around the same time as the anniversary of Khomeini's death. The big bash wouldn't have looked so great if people were standing around hurling shit at the tomb, so the government of Iran did the only rational thing it could do: it imported celebrants.
They trolled through third world Islamic countries and offered people a free plane ride and hotel rooms in Tehran so that they could attend this bash. Most of the people in the audience didn't speak a lick of Farsi. They looked, dressed, acted nothing like locals, but hey- they don't throw shit at the guy you're trying to make look good, so that counts for something.
That's the news my mother-in-law brought back from Iran. She also brought back a joke:
Ahmadenijad heard about a local blood drive, and decided that it might be a good photo-op to make his failing administration look good. When he arrived, he was lined up with the people who hadn't ever given blood before so that he could be blood typed. The nurse sat him down, ran the test, and looked very confused. He called over his supervisor and showed her the test. "His blood is no type," the nurse explained. "He is not A or B, AB, or O. All I can see is that he is negative."I imagine it's funnier to a native speaker.
The supervisor ran the test again, and confirmed the results. The supervisor, the nurse, and the president all sat there, very confused. And then the supervisor noticed a strange odor coming from the test tube that held Ahmadenijad's blood. A foul stench- but one that she recognized. "I'm sorry, Mr. President," she explained. "But we do not need your kind of blood."
"Why? What blood type am I?"
"Shit negative," she replied.
