Air Force ceremony
Air Force ceremonyIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Iran re-enacted the 33rd anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return from exile by replacing the late Iranian leader with cardboard cutouts, which were ushered from an Islamic Republic plane to an official ceremony, marking his "homecoming".

The religious leader was forced into exile in 1964 by the secular Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who feared his popularity; the fears turned out to be well-founded. On February 1, 1979, a day that is still celebrated as one of the most momentous occasions in Iranian history, the Ayatollah returned to Iran, after spending more than 14 years in exile.

The Iranian Mehr news agency published photos of the ceremony online. However they “seemed to lend themselves to parody, with both Farsi and English Internet satirists treating them as bizarre authoritarian kitsch.

The photos show a band playing welcome music as dozens of men in dress uniforms clutch roses and line up on a tarp for the staged arrival of the cardboard Ayatollah Khomeini,” the New York Times reported.

The ceremony was viewed as a farce worldwide and garnered much comical publicity. The Times relayed that satirists posted numerous pictures with bubble captions coming out of the late Iranian leader’s mouth.

One of them shows the Ayatollah saying: “I’m gonna punch this government in the mouth! I’m gonna create a new government! My government will provide free water and electricity! I am going to accomplish many things!”

An official replies, “Go to sleep, piece of cardboard!”