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Remember back in 2008, when Iran Photoshopped an extra missile into a photograph of its missile test? Turns out, bad habits die hard. The Atlantic Wire has caught Iran's semi-official Mehrs News Agency (MNA) using another digitally-altered image to depict its missile program. Only this time, the image is even more egregiously Photoshopped.

On the homepage of its website today, the image appears next to a story downplaying the threat of Iran's ballistic missile program. It's a small image but upon closer inspection, you can see that something is amiss.

According to a Google search, that image first appeared on the Internet on July 9, 2008 on a Word Press site called "What the Crap?" That time stamp would've been just after Iran was originally busted for Photoshopping an image of its missile test. During that time, a number of clever news watchers produced a series of prank versions of the Iran missile launch like this one and this one, which transformed the embarrassing episode into a funny Internet meme. Humorously, it appears Iran is now using images from the meme it created to depict its own missile program. Even more humorously, it appears the Photoshopped image MNA picked includes a photo of loathed Star Wars prequel character Jar Jar Binks. Take a closer look:

Obviously, we can't think of anything dumber than using an image from a meme created to mock your regime in a real-life news story. Then again, this is Iran.

On another note, we should add that today is May 4, otherwise known as Star Wars Day in honor of the 35th anniversary of the film. So, you never know, this could be a way for someone in Tehran to silently celebrate the nerd holiday. If it is, we're sorry we spilled the beans on your prank. We hope President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be merciful and, on a similar note, we hope George Lucas doesn't sue you.

Charon wrote:It's one of those moments where you think "They have to be trolling me, there's no way they're this stupid".

Destructionator XV wrote:Did any of you morons read the actual article? The author was mocking the paranoid idiocy of Americans and Europeans.

Arrogant empires claim they need to put ballistic missile shields up to protect people from the craaaaaazy Iranian threat.

This isn't true. The picture symbolizes how absurd the whole situation is. Iranian press releases often use file or stock photos that represent or symbolize the theme of the article. If you read the text, you'll see there's no misrepresentation.

Derek Thunder wrote:I think Destructionator may have a round-about sort of point though. Most Americans, in their day-to-day existence, do not think much about Iran or geopolitics in general. Sure, it may make a decent couple of lines in a presidential stump speech, but I am willing to wager that the majority of people in the west do not fear or hate Iran, at least not enough to justify a military conflict. Saddam Hussein made a perfect foil for the west, a showy cold-war era strongman made for television - Ahmadinejad is both significantly less charismatic and his business-casual engineer attire does little to bolster his image as a figure to be reckoned with.

However, most westerners do have very strong opinions about the Star Wars prequel trilogy. If the Military-Industrial Cornplex* can create a mental association between the Iranian regime and the unhinged madness of George Lucas, then they can easily sell a war which will bolster their profits at the expense of taxpayers.

*The real winners of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a shut-down of Iranian oil production would be ethanol producers... Think about it.

Derek Thunder wrote:I think Destructionator may have a round-about sort of point though. Most Americans, in their day-to-day existence, do not think much about Iran or geopolitics in general. Sure, it may make a decent couple of lines in a presidential stump speech, but I am willing to wager that the majority of people in the west do not fear or hate Iran, at least not enough to justify a military conflict. Saddam Hussein made a perfect foil for the west, a showy cold-war era strongman made for television - Ahmadinejad is both significantly less charismatic and his business-casual engineer attire does little to bolster his image as a figure to be reckoned with.

However, most westerners do have very strong opinions about the Star Wars prequel trilogy. If the Military-Industrial Cornplex* can create a mental association between the Iranian regime and the unhinged madness of George Lucas, then they can easily sell a war which will bolster their profits at the expense of taxpayers.

*The real winners of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a shut-down of Iranian oil production would be ethanol producers... Think about it.