The story that Maziar invented for his interrogator about the incredible massages one can get in New Jersey -- "People died of pleasure" -- is a wonderful poke at Jon Stewart's home. And a nice comic relief in a movie about a *beep* up political situation. I loved it :)
shareIn Bahari's book, he says that his interrogator was obsessed with the idea that the United States--and in particular, New Jersey--was a corrupt, godless place filled with unimaginable (and tantalizing) sexual immorality. The New Jersey stuff in the movie wasn't made up by Jon Stewart as a dig at his own home state; Bahari's interrogator really did ask him over and over about New Jersey:
His interrogator, [Bahari] said, had an obsession with New Jersey.share
In a deadly serious yet still very comical interview with Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show'' last night, a Newsweek reporter who was held for 118 days in an Iranian prison talked about how his interrogator was obsessed with New Jersey.
The interrogator -- a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- believes New Jersey is "paradise on earth,'' the prototypical American state where people drink all the time, have sex all the time and never run into Jews, recently freed reporter Maziar Bahari says.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/12/iranian_captor_obsessed_with_t.html