I like to say Brazilians are a walking meme and its true. We can’t have one conversation without inserting a meme. And we have so many that you’ve probably stumbled on a Brazilian meme in your internet searches and didn’t even realize. As a Brazilian, I can say Brazilians are weird individuals and our memes really do say that about us.
While doing my research, I came upon an interview with Gabriel Lunardi (Brazilian researcher). In the interview, she explained that our memes represent our popular culture, our politics, and social reality. We often embrace our issues through our memes, its like we use our meme to self-criticize ourselves and our country. Brazilian use humor as a defense mechanism against all our issues because honestly, if we sat down to talk about everything that’s going wrong in our country, we would probably cry. An example would be when Azealia Banks got into a fight with Brazilians and wrote “I didn’t know they had internet in the favela” a Brazilian user then replied to her saying “here we have internet even in prison, my love”. While you probably didn’t think it was funny or maybe didn’t get it, Brazilians did. That’s because our prisons are a joke. Prisoners can smuggle anything they want inside.
Did you know that Brazil ranks as the fourth country with the highest number of internet users in the world? This meaning, Brazil is a very active country on social media. When I say very, I mean very and to top it off Brazilians don’t care if you don’t understand Portuguese, they’ll speak to you as if you are Brazilian. And with the creation of memes, it’s gotten worse. To be honest, it’s like we’ve created our own digital language called “o meme” (the meme). Our memes come from old Neymar tweets, TV shows, music videos, viral videos, and even from news reports. However, there are some Brazilians memes that have gone on an international tour and here are some of them:
3. Cuca
Cuca’s international fame literally started overnight. It seemed like I fell asleep and woke up and America had been re-discovered. I never really knew why and how it all began, but all I know it happened. One morning, I woke up and did my daily news search on twitter and realized that Americans were all hyped because of our famous evil crocodile.
Cuca is a character from an old kids TV show called Sitio do Pica-Pau Amarelo (“Yellow Woodpecker Ranch” if you want to translate it to English). Written by Monteiro Lobato, Sitio do Pica-Pau Amarelo tells the story of two cousins getting into mishaps on their adventures with their living, thinking toys (now thinking about it, it’s almost like a Brazilian Toy Story). In the stories, the two cousins Narizinho and Pedrinho, have to “fight” with the evil witch named Cuca.
Although a villain, Cuca was briefly worshipped on the Twitterverse and even called the “meme Goddess”. The hype was so big that Perez Hilton even created Cuca merch.
Lemme see that Cucussy!! Get your #Cuca merch now at https://t.co/sqQnlCBka0 pic.twitter.com/5aD2ztGSrA
— Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) June 21, 2017
It ended up not going so well for Perez since Globo and the Lobato family were studying to sue him for privacy issues.
Although the Cuca hype has died down recently, we will still worship our beloved evil blonde alligator who has issued some incredible gifs.
2. Nazaré
Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the “math/confused lady” or as we like to call her Nazaré Tedesco. Nazaré was a villain in the telenovela Senhora do Destino (Women from the Destiny) played by Brazilian actress Renata Sorrah. This popular meme came from a scene where Nazaré is in jail thinking about destroying her archrival Maria do Carmo (the main protagonist of the story). Check out the scene below:
Although a villain, Nazaré conquered the hearts of many and is considered one of the best antagonist of a Brazilian novela. She has also inspired many memes and a bunch of meme pages, one of the most popular being @nazareamarga on Instagram, which holds 2.1 million followers. In this meme page, the creators create funny memes that would represent what Nazaré would do if she was in that situation.
Translated it would be, “my body is 80% anger and 20% water”. In Senhora do Destino, Nazaré was a very angry and annoyed character. She didn’t like anyone, not even her daughter.
1. Gretchen
If you have been on twitter you have seen a gif of this lady at least once in your lifetime. Please meet the queen of Brazilian memes, Gretchen or Maria Odete Brito de Miranda Marques but no one really calls her that. I honestly can’t explain to you why she’s become so popular in the meme world, all I can say is once you start using her gifs you can’t stop.
Gretchen started her career in the 1970s’ with her sister Sula. They were both part of a girl group who sang disco music. By ’78, Gretchen pulled a Camila Cabello and went solo She then released hit songs like Freek Le Boom Boom, Melô do Piripipi and Conga Conga Conga. Because of her sexy dance moves, Gretchen became known as the “Rainha do Bumbum” (The Booty Queen). Gretchen has made several appearances in several tv programs and sold millions of copies (more than 15 million to be exact). For a brief time, Gretchen was one of the most popular Brazilian artists of her time.
But it wasn’t just her success that made her popular in Brazil. Our meme queen has attempted the gospel singer pathway in the 1990s but suffered a media blackout. In an attempt to win back her stardom, Gretchen acted in several porn movies in the 2000s. Gretchen is also well known for her many marriages (17 to be exact) and bizarre plastic surgeries.
In 2012, Gretchen participated in the Brazilian reality show, A Fazenda (The Farm). A Fazenda holds a group of washed out celebrities in a distant farm where the public decides who stays and leaves every week. Gretchen never made it to the final after choosing to quit in the middle of the reality show.
It was around this time that Gretchen’s gifs became more and more popular. So popular that Katy Perry invited Gretchen to participate in her lyric video for “Swish Swish”. Today, Gretchen holds a Youtube Channel and recently she was rumored to be getting her own reality show (call her Gretchen Kardashian).
In conclusion, I can proudly say we Brazilians, embrace our weirdness and use it to give the rest of the world some funny memes. And to end this post with a meme, Brazilians haven’t taken over the world because we don’t want too.
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