Iraqi Prank TV Show Plants Fake Car Bombs

Looks like years of war have given Iraq a pretty dark sense of humor. In a new reality TV program there, Iraqi soldiers prank celebrities by planting fake bombs in their vehicles—and then threatening to jail or execute them. “Why do you want to blow us up?” the soldiers demand. “How much did they pay you to do it? You will be executed.”

The show’s title translates roughly to “Send Him to Bucca,” referring to the US Camp Bucca detention center in Basra. Celebrities are told they’re headed to an interview at Al-Baghdadia, the TV station that airs the show, but then stopped at a fake checkpoint en-route. You can see a video of it (in Arabic) on Aol. The show has created a major uproar in Iraq, according to the New York Times, with nearly every newspaper carrying complaints about it. (More reality TV stories.)