Brazilian TV clown elected to high office, passes literacy test

Brazilian TV clown Francisco Oliveira (AKA Tiririca) has been elected to the Brazilian government, running on such slogans as "What does a federal deputy do? I have no idea -- but vote for me and I'll let you know." He was required to take a literacy test (which he narrowly passed) before taking office.

He ran a humorous television campaign dressed as a clown with a blond wig and colorful costume, and spouting riffs like "What does a federal deputy do? I have no idea -- but vote for me and I'll let you know."
Detractors, including several longtime lawmakers, said Oliveira was bringing Brazil's congress -- known for its many corruption scandals -- into disrepute, and challenged his candidacy on literacy grounds.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former shoeshine boy and metalworker, called the demand for the test an "idiocy" disrespecting those who voted for Oliveira.

Brazil clown secures congress seat after literacy test (via JWZ)

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Anonymous

The important test starts now that he’s taking a seat.. does he go on the take like apparently everyone else in government, or does he support his constituents?

If only the United States elected more clowns – not like Sonny Bono or Ronald Reagan – we’d be in a much better place.
ultranaut

As disillusioned as I’ve become with electoral politics I still have no qualms about voting for a clown.
TheCrawNotTheCraw

Like Zippy said, “Yow! Am I elected yet?”
Anonymous

I wish there was an IQ and literacy test to run for office in America! Then maybe we wouldn’t have suffered nearly a decade under George W. Bush. And there wouldn’t be rumblings about a Palin presidential run.

God forbid that the people running our country should actually have to be intelligent!
Anonymous

Didn’t the king take advise from the court jester?
irksome

I think we’ve found Sarah Palin’s running-mate. Any chance he was born in the US?
Unnur MarÃa

Last August the citizens of ReykjavÃk, Iceland’s capital voted a comedian for mayor. And not just any politician, but one that has been known for black, sometimes quite unsavory, humor. He did not run for an established political party but headed his own satire of a political party, whose name literally translates as “The Best Party”. He quit school before 16, has no former experience of working within the political machine and freely admits his lack of expertise. However he is doing a damn good job and enjoys wide support.

Oh, and he’s an old punk who used to scream for the band Nefrennsli (which translates as the state when one has boogers flowing out of one’s nose) and amongst his political slogans was this gem: “A drug-free parliament by 2020!”
Anonymous

This post forgets to mention Brazil’s interesting election system. We use something called “quociente eleitoral” (Hare quota), under this system the excess votes are split among other party members. With over 1.3M votes, this clown got 3 (almost 4!) other candidates elected.
Is just sad when a “democracy” is so blatantly manipulated.
Anonymous

Queue jokes about how this happens in America all the time.
brunocs

Is there anything particularly wrong about him being a formed clown? The US had a president who used to be an actor, and now has a governor. I’m not sure I see a big difference. I’m yet to see any reasonably analysis that shows correlation between previous job and success at public office. In fact, as mentioned in the article, Lula (Brazil’s current president was a metalworker and had very little formal education, and nonetheless is considered one of the most important leaders among one of the 3 fastest rising economies in the world, and his administration is widely considered as a big success — with around 80% of approval rate even after almost 8 years in office.

Even though I wouldn’t have voted for Tiririca, to me it seems like this story is nothing more than a big demonstration of the success of a democracy: if even a clown has access to important government positions, that means that 1) people’s will is being respected; 2) government positions are fairly open and accessible to people outside the usual elite and inner circles of “professional” politicians.

Bruno
- Frederico Freitas
  
  It is not true to affirm that the Brazilian president, Mr. Lula has “little formal education.” In fact, he has completed secondary education, what puts him in the same category as the majority of Americans (less than a third of Americans have college degrees).
  - Anonymous
    
    Shhh, the other two thirds are supposed to think they’re losers and stay out of the way. You trying to stir up CLASS WARFARE?!
Tony

Clown gets a seat in government. At last, the universe starts making sense.
Blaine

An, as of yet, unmentioned comedic element to the story is…

Google translates his Wikipedia page to read “Nutsedge”.
Sanzalure

Members of the Rhinoceros Party of Canada
applaud the population of Brazil
who dared elect Francisco Oliveira (AKA Tiririca)
to represent them in government.

As clowns ourselves,
we are proud of Tiririca who is showing us all
that manking still has a future.

Serge Grenier
secretary of the party
tmalba

“President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former shoeshine boy and metalworker” should add: “himself illiterate, for all intents and purposes”. I agree with brunocs that success in public office has not much to do with the type of work one has previously done, but I believe there is a greater risk for that official to be made a puppet, as it was the case with Lula (and Reagan). These examples show that they play well for the audience, but not much else.

In Tiririca’s case, a vote of protest is most obviously what caused him to be there. Remember, they once had a monkey (“Macaco TiÃ£o”) in Rio narrowly being elected, and — also in Rio — a native indian (Mario Juruna) who barely spoke Portuguese and whose claim to fame in congress was his very many attempts to bed the female anthropologists who came to interview that fascinating specimen. This time was SÃ£o Paulo’s turn to bring on the collective joke. Collective, in this case, is over 1.3 million votes (the most voted representative in the country).

What a joke.