Flávio Bolsonaro’s departure to the US sparks a flurry of viral Brazilian memes

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Political memes have exploded in Brazil since Sunday’s election that saw President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat his opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, who responded to his loss by fleeing the country.

Social media played an outsized role in Lula's win, with the unprecedented mobilization of the country's left on digital networks a critical factor in how Sunday's vote played out. Bolsonaro, who is under investigation for money laundering and corruption, said on Monday that he had no intentions of leaving Brazil, then departed the country shortly thereafter.

The extraordinary sequence of events kicked Brazil’s famed meme-making machine into overdrive, turbo-charged by artificial intelligence. The posts got hundreds of thousands of likes and shares on multiple social media platforms.

“Brazilians treat serious questions with lightness, irony and humor,” said Carolina Terra, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo’s communications and arts school. “Everything that is extremely relevant and important, whether political or not, tends to turn into memes that become viral.”

“Where is Flávio?” many on the internet asked, depicting former President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son as Waldo, the famous character of a children’s puzzle book series.

One meme titled “Which costume would you use to flee?” presented Bolsonaro in a range of outfits to resemble a Rastafarian, Mario, former soccer player Ronaldo and John Lennon, among others.

Another showed “Flyvio Bolsonaro” as the captain of a “Fly 22 Airlines” – a reference to the number of Brazilians who voted for him punched into the country’s electronic voting machines.

The 45-year-old Trump ally landed in Miami on Wednesday and posted a letter in which he declared himself the “true president-elect of Brazil” — a term he later softened to “leader” — and said the vote was fraudulent, without offering evidence. He compared himself — among other figures — to Charles de Gaulle, who led the French resistance to the Nazi occupation of France from London during World War II.

The letter, posted on X, also used a coat of arms referring to Brazil as “United States of Brazil” instead of the “Federative Republic of Brazil” as the country has been known since 1967. It also misspelled Brazil in Portuguese, using the English spelling with a “z” rather than the Portuguese “Brasil.”

Some Brazilians received an “invitation” to a mock inauguration of Bolsonaro as the president of the “United States of Brazil,” signed by cartoon character Goofy and with Disneyland in the background.

Other internet users declared themselves all sorts of things — from the King of Soccer, a reference to Pelé , to Brazil’s president.

Some social media users parodied the slogan “God, homeland and family”, which became “Goodbye, homeland and family”.

Other memes drew inspiration from famous movies. An AI-modified version of the poster for “Catch me if you can” replaced Leonardo DiCaprio with Bolsonaro and Tom Hanks with Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes , who issued the order canceling Bolsonaro’s passports on Sunday night.

Another tampered with the poster for “Home Alone” and pictured Flávio and his brother Eduardo — who also lives in the U.S. — as the thieves in the background, and a shocked-looking Jair Bolsonaro in a red jumper at the forefront.

One referenced the movie “Dark Horse” — a biopic and propaganda film about Jair Bolsonaro.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion for receiving millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance the movie. The meme depicted the poster for an imagined “Dark Horse 2” — showing Bolsonaro on a horse bearing a presidential sash galloping on a highway toward an airport. “The fugitive is different” read the poster, referencing the elder Bolsonaro’s similar departure to Florida after he lost the 2022 election and also refused to concede. He was later sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup.

Fewer memes circulated in Brazil during this year's election campaign due to a lack of opportunities ahead of the first round because there were no debates involving the two main candidates, said Viktor Chagas, a professor at Fluminense Federal University and coordinator of the Colab research group that analyzes political memes.

In the lead up to the runoff vote, the two debates did generate more memes but the three-week period was principally characterized by high political tension, Chagas said.

“The memes regarding Bolsonaro’s departure to the U.S. have a cathartic element” for Lula's supporters, said Chagas. “The idea is: Now that we’re back on track, so to speak, we can laugh together.”

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