Cuddly?
Photo: Reuters
Iranian girl's stuffed monkey named 'Ahmadinejad'
On popular Iranian TV show, young female caller on live broadcast says her father refers to her primate doll by name of Iran's president
During a recent live broadcast of a popular children' show on Iranian television, one young girl surprised viewers when she related how her father called her stuffed monkey 'Ahmadinejad', the name of the Islamic Republic's president.
An Iranian news agency reported on Tuesday that, during a telephone call that took place on the show 'Uncle Fornaj', the show's host asked a young female caller whether she was good girl who obeyed her parents.
"I'm a good girl and my father bought me a doll," the girl responded, adding that the doll was stuffed monkey. "My father calls it Ahmadinejad," she said in response to the host's follow-up question.
'Uncle Fornaj' is one of the most highly-watched shows in Iran, broadcast on the country's premier state-run channel and hosted by a local children's celebrity.
Producers and media experts in Iran are familiar with the problems related to taking live phone calls while on the air, since the callers, most often children, don't always know how to conform their responses to the manner of behavior deemed acceptable in the Islamic Republic.
According to a report by Khabar News, this is not the first time that such a 'mishap' has taken place during a live show. At least twice in the past, children have brought up 'family matters' generally considered private and unacceptable for public discussion in Iran.
For example, during one show, when the host asked the child to hand the phone to his parents, he responded that his parents were taking a shower together. In another case, a pair of twin callers was asked who their father kissed first when he came home from work. They responded that he kissed their mother first.
