is it possible for you to explain the ties between death and the family and the iran contra affair to a dumb gen-z?
Iran-Contra was a political scandal in the 1980's where the US was secretly trafficking arms to Iran under Reagan. The sales were used by the US Government to secretly fund and prop up anti-communist forces in countries where the US was worried about communist governments or movements (super long story).
The Reagan administration lied and said the arms were being sold to Iran in order to free American hostages in Lebanon. They were eventually banned from funding anti-communist forces in other countries, but continued to do so anyway (also a long story).
In "a Death in the Family" Joker tries to sell nuclear weapons to Lebanon, and in the process of tracking him down with Batman (and preventing him from doing so) Jason Todd is killed in Ethiopia (long story).
When Batman goes to try and avenge Jason's death by killing the Joker, Superman stops him and informs him that Joker is now Iran's ambassador to the UN and has diplomatic immunity. Joker then goes on to try and kill the whole UN, but that's a different story.
TL;DR: DC comics was trying to parallel / reference current events and wove Joker into existing Cold War conflicts, such as those related to Iran-Contra. They also included existing political figures like Reagan and the Ayatollah. This was a controversial choice and part of the reason DC eventually had to retcon and change real countries/people to fake ones.