A divisive electoral duel has Brazilians on edge and at times depressed, but for comedian Fabio Porchat it’s the perfect time to break the jokes.
“It’s the best time to make people laugh,” said the 39-year-old, whose stand-up routine has been a hit in Rio de Janeiro in recent weeks as the country jittery ahead of President Jair’s runoff election Bolsonaro and his rival Luiz Inacio on Sunday is waiting for Lula da Silva.
“The nerves are on edge, the people are fed up with the elections. There are fights within families… But when we meet to go to the theater to have a laugh, it doesn’t matter if you’re for Lula or Bolsonaro, we laugh at the jokes and that’s it.”
His show “Porchat’s Stories” runs four times a week at a theater in Leblon, an upscale neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, and makes no mention of politics.
He prefers self-deprecating jokes revealed through hysterical anecdotes from his trips abroad, such as when he had a gastro-attack in Nepal.
“I talk a lot about politics on TV, on social media. But I chose not to bring it up in the theater because I told myself that people need to laugh at other things,” said the comedian, who also hosts a show on TV Globo.
On Instagram, where he has more than six million followers, Porchat has gone live multiple times to speak to undecided voters “without judging them”.
He’s open about his support for leftist former President Lula — and went viral on Friday on Twitter with an appeal to Hollywood’s greatest superheroes, the Avengers, for help in the presidential duel.
Stars including Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth and Robert Downey Jr. – who play Nick Fury, Thor and Iron Man respectively in the mega-franchise – responded to the call with decidedly Lula-heavy tweets.
– “A question of mental health” –
Yuri Marcal, another popular Brazilian comedian, sees it as “a mental health issue” to make people laugh during such a dark and testy time.
“It’s never easy to make people laugh, especially at a time like this with such a polarized election. We feel such a depressed mood. But actually, people need to laugh more than ever.”
On Tuesday, the 29-year-old black comedian surprised fans with a new YouTube video titled “I don’t choose a thief.”
For a Brazilian, the phrase is a direct reference to the insult that far-right Bolsonaro and his supporters are fond of leveling at Lula over bribery convictions that have been overturned by the Supreme Court.
But if you click on the video, you realize that Marcal is talking about a Bolsonarista cousin, “the white sheep of the family,” whom he’s trying to convince to vote for Lula.
“That’s our role, no matter what era we live in, to make people laugh by taking serious issues lightly,” he said.
“I’ve gotten laughs for years when I talk about politics, but also about racism,” he said.
– Online threats –
Porchat recalls that Brazilian comedians “have been through worse,” referring to the military dictatorship of 1964-1985.
“Back then you had to appear in front of four or five censors before you could appear in public. One wrong word and you landed in jail.”
However, comedy is not without its dangers in Brazil.
In late 2019, the headquarters of Porta dos Fundos, a production company founded by Porchat in 2012, was hit with a Molotov cocktail after it released a Netflix show depicting Jesus in a homosexual relationship.
However, Porchat says the threats usually come from people “hiding behind their screens online. But it’s a minority.”
Marcal has also received threats on social media, where he has more than a million followers on Instagram.
“Recently I made a joke about Bolsonaro and someone said, ‘Be careful, I know where you’re performing.'”
