Maziar Bahari was imprisoned for interview on The Daily Show.

Maziar Bahari is a Canadian Iranian journalist. He was interviewed by Jason Jones of “The Daily Show” when Jones was in Iran during the upheaval earlier this year. If you are not familiar with “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”, it is a US-based satirical look at the news. It should say enough about the show that it is aired on a network called “Comedy Central”.

After the interview, the segment was evidently not localized well enough. Or perhaps not at all, and someone watching it could not detect irony in another language. Whatever the reason, Bahari was arrested and jailed for espionage for 118 days. His account of this is in the Newsweek”>current Newsweek. He was interviewed on The Daily Show about his incarceration.  The video below is blocked outside the United States. If you are unable to see it, please check out a commentary on the exchange at Mediaiate.

Somes comedy—and always localization—is serious stuff.