Brazilian foreign account on December 31, 2022 He posted his photo on Twitter At a KFC near Orlando, Florida, wearing a blue polo shirt and eating what appeared to be a chicken leg, was Brazil’s outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, a tall man with a stocky appearance and a beaky nose. On January 2, progressive activist David Adler reposted Image captioned “I’ll pay a hefty commission for this photo of disgraced former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro eating KFC in Orlando, Florida on the day of Lula’s inauguration.” Adler’s post has been viewed 4.3 million times, according to Twitter.
Note that Bolsonaro’s rival Lula, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was inaugurated on January 1, and Bolsonaro, whatever one may think of his right-wing politics, is not “disgraced” in the traditional sense of scandal or resignation. criminal prosecution. Still, it’s essentially funny to see a world leader—one of awesome power, custom suits, and diplomatic summits in the Alps—sat on a Formica table, head bent over his body, lips barely able to keep their purchase in a wet dress. Chicken and loose bread for six bucks in central Florida. Alexander Pope would call it so baths.
However, this is not the first photo of the now former President Bolsonaro to go “viral”. Far from it. Indeed, to a certain left-leaning segment of the American news audience, he is less relevant to his place in world affairs than, for some reason, because so many of his pictures are so funny.
Another viral tweet posted six days later added a video of Bolsonaro walking alone in a circle at a Publix supermarket – presumably in Florida, where there is a significant Brazilian population – without self-possession. cart or basket:
(Krohn later wrote that he would like to credit whoever made the video, but not sure where it originally came from.)
Going back to when Bolsonaro was actually in power and considered by some to be a threat to the future of the planet, this tweet collects a series of pictures of him in hospitals, in a setting he often finds himself in:
What’s going on here? To understand, we can start by going back to the beginning of Bolsonaro’s career:
[Bolsonaro] In 1986, he became public after he was arrested and held in prison for 15 days after writing an article for Veja magazine criticizing the low pay of military officers.
Being imprisoned by a repressive state is not a classic comedy situation… but it is whom It’s funny what happens to a nationalist strongman trying to take his first step into the public eye, and is described in the text next to his profile picture below:
Isak Nóbrega/PR – Flickr do Palácio do Planalto
D’oh.
So Bolsonaro is a one-time military man who served as a conservative in Brazil’s congress for more than 20 years. In 2018, he ran for president as a Trump-like figure who “talks it like it is.” He supports torture, has a long history of making extravagantly homophobic remarks, and even made international headlines for making an extremely rude comment to a female lawmaker before running for president.
While running for the presidency, Bolsonaro was stabbed in the stomach by a person who was later determined to be mentally ill during a rally. Again, not so it’s funny funny, but at least it’s a weird way to attempt an assassination and he survived.
Complications from the stabbing are one of the reasons why Bolsonaro has been in the hospital so much, but not the only one. He’s also been hospitalized after falling in the bathroom, contracting COVID in 2020 (he downplays the risk of the virus and says he’s not vaccinated), developing bladder stones, becoming a member of the threatened Brazilian UN delegation ( or isolated). In 2021, from COVID and the development of a skin infection called erysipelas on his leg made it painful for him to wear pants. During the first COVID quarantine, Bolsonaro stepped outside to get some air and was caught on video being bitten by an emu-like bird.
Comedy experts told me that the contrast between Bolsonaro’s menacing personal goals and their history of being thwarted by mishaps like Mr. Bean may explain why the image of his face can evoke positive feelings. “He’s basically Squidward or Wile E. Coyote,” ex 30 rocks and Modern Family said writer Vali Chandrasekaran. The Daily Show writer Jason O. Gilbert echoed similar sentiments: “It’s the same reason Trump standing photos are funny. [Bolsonaro] presents himself as an innocent alpha male, but every photo he takes in the hospital looks like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Gilbert added: “Also, he’s always stupidly raising his hand when he looks like the sickest person on the planet.”
Chandrasekaran put me in touch with Chilean comic Fabrizio Copano, who compared Bolsonaro to the United States’ most nominally macho ex-president and added some political context. “He’s a no-win Trump,” Kopano said. “Even the economy was confused during his time. He tried to copy and paste Trump’s every behavior, but without effectiveness or luck. (Bolsonaro’s approval rating has been underwater for almost his entire presidency, at times exceeding 30 points.) These events, inflicted on this particular man, feel fair. A soccer ball traveling at 50 miles per hour hits Hitler in the crotch. Ha ha!
What does the future hold for the world’s dumbest-looking proponent of allowing police officers to execute suspects in the street? Most likely, Bolsonaro will go to a hospital in Florida, where he plans to stay for one to three months to ensure that he will not be arrested in Brazil. He’s staying there with a lightweight MMA fighter who has a Minions-themed bedroom for some reason. There’s a photo of Bolsonaro, who once had to be hospitalized for ten days of hiccups, wearing padded UFC-branded fight gloves and trying to look tough but not stifling a goofy half-laugh. Please don’t laugh at this. There will be no laughing at the former president of Brazil in this forum today, even if something happens to that tiny string holding his giant anvil. the head