A self-declared ignorant TV clown became Brazil’s most-voted congressional candidate ever

Evidence

Tiririca received far more votes than any other congressional candidate in the history of Brazil. He got twice as many votes as the second-most-popular candidate for the legislature that year; he got double the amount that any “real” politician received. He entered Congress on January 1, 2011. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 182

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to protest-as-signaling themes: voting for Tiririca echoes the chapter’s broader argument about anti-system gestures. — connects to: Brazilian voters used vote-for-a-clown jokes to signal disgust with politics — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 178; A Brazilian clown ran for Congress on a candidly absurd platform — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 178; Brazilian voters turned a joke candidate into the country’s top vote-getter — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 182
• STORYSTEM: A self-aware satirist who wins power by promising ignorance is a rich seed for fiction about sincerity and absurdism in politics.

Broader Connections

• Brazilian voters used vote-for-a-clown jokes to signal disgust with politics #expands (0.85) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 178