No Sacred Cows

Israelis will make light or fun of pretty much anything, and not just behind closed doors. There’s a radio ad campaign on Israeli Broadcasting Authority stations right now promoting the election coverage on the news station. In the first ad I heard, which was amusing, Michelle Obama is heard trying to get Barack Obama’s attention, but he’s listening to Israeli election coverage on Reshet Bet. Here’s the banner ad version:

Funny, right? Aside from the borderline offensive “black dude with a boombox” imagery (it’s a known issue – a feature, not a bug, if you will – that Israelis are 1) politically incorrect and 2) totally stuck in the 80s when it comes to their vision of the USA).

Later, though, they ran an ad with a guy with a heavy Arab accent. It turned out to be Hassan Nasrallah‘s aide trying to get his boss’s attention, while the head of Hezbollah is listening to Israeli radio to get the latest update on the elections.

I realize this is not nearly as funny in translation, let alone in a bland description, but it is hilarious.

UPDATE: I just heard another one, this time with a guy talking to Ahmadinejad. Told you: NOTHING. SACRED. I’ll try to capture the audio of at least one of these and update if I can.

UPDATE 2 (1/9): Here’s the Ahmadinejad spot. Farsi-speaking friends, is the quick exchange something like “Come on, Reshet Bet again?!” “Quiet! I’m listening to election blah blah!”?
AhmadinejadReshetBet

(This is the first time I’m inserting media into a post using the embedded WordPress option, hope it works)