Brazilian clown Tiririca becomes a congressman
I recently read a very interesting article about a Brazilian clown who became a congressman in 2010 in Brazil, and was recently named one of the top 25 Brazilian politicians. (Thanks to Jim Moore  of Vaudevisuals for posting something about him on Facebook)
The clown, Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva—better known by his clown name Tiririca (Grumpy),  ran in 2010 after being invited by the Brazilian Republic Party. He appeared in television ads in his Tiririca persona and used slogans including “O que é que faz um deputado federal? Na realidade, eu não sei. Mas vote em mim que eu te conto” (“What does a federal congressman do? I really don’t know – but if you vote for me, I’ll tell ya”), “Pior que está não fica, vote no Tiririca” (“It can’t get any worse, vote Tiririca”) and even “Se eleito prometo ajudar todas as famÃlias brasileiras…especialmente a minha” (“If elected I promise I will help all Brazilian families… especially mine”).  This caused a scandal in Brazil, but ultimately, he was elected with the second-most number of votes in Brazilian history.  There were also some questions about his literacy, but ultimately he passed the required test, barely.
Read more about him here:
http://kgmi.com/What-a-Brazilian-clown-reveals-about-the-crisis-in/11461924?newsId=188645
and here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiririca
and here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11465127
And here’s a few of his Congressional ads (subtitled)