'Grumpy the Clown' elected to Brazil's Congress, but can he read?

Posted By Joshua Keating Thursday, November 11, 2010 - 3:04 PM Share

Earlier this year we ran a piece by Julia Ioffe on some of the eccentrics and entertainers elected to Russia's Duma under the front-page headline "Send in the Clowns." Now I feel like we may have used that one too early:

Grumpy the clown won election in a laugher, getting more votes than any other candidate for Brazil's Congress. Now he has to prove that he can read and write.

The Sao Paulo Electoral Court held a closed-door exam for the clown turned congressman-elect on Thursday to determine if he meets a constitutional mandate that federal lawmakers be literate.

Francisco Silva became famous as Tiririca -- "Grumpy" in Portuguese -- and received about 1.3 million votes, nearly twice as many as the next-highest vote-getter in last month's congressional elections. His campaign videos drew millions of viewers on the Internet, with slogans such as "It can't get any worse" and "What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and you'll find out."

But a less humorous element emerged during the campaign: Allegations that Silva, like 10 percent of Brazilians, is illiterate. Judge Aloisio Silveira ruled that there were discrepancies between the handwriting on Silva's application to run for Congress and that on the document in which he swears he can read and write and in autographs he gave to fans.

The exam was held on Thursday and apparently Tiririca both "read and wrote" during it, though it's not yet clear if he was proficient enough to hold office. 

Just for the record, in Brazil, people like Tiririca and "Chico bin Laden" are allowed to run for office, but professional comedians aren't allowed to make fun of them. This makes a lot of sense.

EXPLORE:SOUTH AMERICA
 

ACOMPANHANTESR7

9:04 PM ET

November 11, 2010

protest to the leaders of Brazil

Ilário really is! But this is proof of the Brazilian people and protest over the governments of Brazil, look for the president and acting president?! this is a joke!
acompanhantes | acompanhantes loiras | acompanhantes morenas | acompanhantes mulatas | acompanhantes orientais | acompanhantes coroas | acompanhantes ruivas | duplas de acompanhantes

 

VIKOJHONS

1:27 AM ET

November 12, 2010

BBC

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ALICE SIMSON

6:26 AM ET

November 12, 2010

AS

Silva’s election campaign has been kind of a joke, but it’s been a successful one. His slogans reflect the true political situation and that’s why, I think, people have voted for him. But no wonder he’s won!
This information was very interesting. Moreover it helped me greatly in writing my custom essay and custom research paper about Congress election.

 

DWB123

2:08 PM ET

November 12, 2010

Damn. After reading the lede:

Damn. After reading the lede: "An Illiterate Clown Won the Most Votes in Brazil's Election. Really," I was hoping this meant Dubya entered Brazilian politics.

 

PEDRO VICENTE BITTENCOURT

3:03 PM ET

November 12, 2010

Just a comment

1) This same week, the brazilian Minister of Education became target of criticism due to a national testa gone awry. The answer sheets didn't correspond to the questions sheets.

2) On thursday, the clown "Tiririca" was approved to take office as congressman nexto year. He proved he can read and write.

3) (Some) People are now calling for him to become the next Minister of Education...

 

LEVANTINE

9:50 AM ET

November 13, 2010

Sao Paulo's previous elections

My Brazilian friend Prof. Marcos pointed out that in 1959 elected a rhino named Cacereco to city council: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/archive/permalink/cacareco_the_rhinoceros/

All of this is still better than Adhemar de Barros, who was elected as guv of Sao Paulo with the unofficial slogan, "He steals, but he gets things done."

 

MARYBLACK

4:08 AM ET

November 14, 2010

A real clown

In every country we have politicians that behave like clowns, but this is real one! As his campaign was kind of joke, I think lots of people voted him just for fun, but now he’s won! The only one question is “Would he make a comedy from political life of Brasil?” I’m sure that soon there would be a lot of custom essays about this in internet.

 

NYGDAN

1:29 PM ET

November 15, 2010

teh internets democratize elections

People often talk about the internet being a powerful force in democratizing social activism and the like, but here we have, I think, a counter to that. They've elected a joke, as a joke, but the election is still real.

 

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