Rafinha Bastos, our Judas

As everyone knows, the last day of Holy Week is Holy Saturday. On that same day, we have the "Malhação de Judas" (Beating of Judas), or "Queima de Judas" (Burning of Judas), as you prefer. This, let's say, "recreational activity," consists of beating a life-sized effigy, stuffed with sawdust, rags, or newspaper, through the streets of a neighborhood and setting it on fire, usually at noon. Each nation carries out the tradition in its own way. Some burn the effigies in front of cemeteries or near churches. In Brazil, it is common to decorate the effigy with masks or signs bearing the names of politicians, soccer coaches, or even personalities not so well-liked by the people.

Next year, I have a feeling we'll have a big name for this not-so-holy feast. I think it will be the comedian from CQC (?), Rafinha Bastos. I almost forgot, the workout already started in September/October 2011, not even waiting for March/April 2012, with the sticks and stones coming out and the itchy fingers entering the keyboards of computers and mobile devices, where comments are published on Twitter (a new public restroom wall in a modern version) and on social networks in general.

As is common knowledge, Rafinha was removed from the CQC panel for making a Howard Stern-esque joke about the daughter of Francisco's son, Wanessa Camargo. The program was proceeding as usual until, after a segment (in which the singer appeared), the presenter Marcelo Tas uttered the phrase: "How cute Wanessa Camargo looks pregnant," said the smiling anchor. "I would eat her and the baby," interrupted Rafinha. "I don't care." He has already been summoned to give a statement at a police station for saying, "Every woman I see on the street complaining about being raped is ugly as hell... What are you complaining about? You should thank God. For you, this wasn't a crime, but an opportunity. A man who did this [rape] doesn't deserve jail, he deserves a hug." The act [joke about Wanessa] would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for some rumors that occurred soon after. Let's reflect on the "event of the year" in Brazil.

Reflection #1 – Rafinha is not crazy, stupid, or even a pervert: Only an imbecile who doesn't know the show would think the comedian was saying that as if it were absolute truth. The master Millôr Fernandes said an anthological phrase some years ago: "Be suspicious of someone who makes money from their ideology." If we were to apply the phrase to Rafinha's case, it would be: "Be suspicious of someone who makes money from their scatology (this word has two meanings; I'm referring to it as excrement)." F5 (the entertainment website of Grupo Folha) published an article about the case the day after the impetuous action and had to watch the comedian write on his Twitter: "Hello Folha de SP, go f*** yourself... Kisses to your heart, Rafinha." If my memory serves me right, the man from Rio Grande do Sul is married to producer Junia Carvalho, with whom he has a son who must be about to turn one year old. The question remains: Would he have the courage to "eat" his pregnant wife and child? The first hypothesis is even commendable, since we know it's normal for a couple to have sex when the woman is pregnant, or do couples sleep in their pants during pregnancy? Now, it would be unimaginable, execrable, and surreal to think that he would have sex with his young child (or are there people with the minds of Salvador Dalí out there?). Has anyone considered that he meant to say, "I would eat her even if she was pregnant," and was unfortunate in what he said immediately afterward?

Reflection #2 Nothing is new: Aggressive stand-up comedy or the commercial exploitation of prejudice is a phenomenon from a golden age. Some names are quite well-known to the public, such as the now-absent Andrew Dice Clay and the multimillionaire radio host Howard Stern. Even the renowned filmmaker Woody Allen began his brilliant career doing this type of humor. In Brazil, we have the writer Marcelo Mirisola, who is not a comedian, but who also uses language quite similar to such stand-up comedy. Let's take Stern as an example. Known for his sexual, scatological, and racial humor, he was fired from the Clear Channel network in 2004 and soon after hired by Sirius XM Radio (earning $40 million annually and interviewing the world's biggest celebrities, such as Lady Gaga). Since then, he's been up to a lot. I'll stick to two famous cases out of the many I could tell. In the first instance, he said in an interview with Paris Hilton's ex-boyfriend, film producer Rick Salomon, that he had engaged in anal sex with Paris in the famous short film that later went viral worldwide. Some time later, in 2009, the famous American porn actress Sasha Grey said she believed the radio host was a closeted racist – and that she would like to appear on his show wrapped in a Palestinian flag (Stern is openly pro-Israel). His response: "She's a fucking porn actress. She sucks dick for a living and wants to come here and lecture me about how racist I am. I don't give a fuck. Wrap the flag around your face and choke on it. Move to Palestine. Go live there. Get married, have kids and train them to blow themselves up in Israel. Go see how Palestinians treat a porn star. Then tell me what it feels like to be buried in the sand and stoned in the head." (Rafinha Bastos' statement is amateurish and very poorly thought out compared to this).

Reflection #3 – Ronaldo is still a phenomenon. He managed to take down the comedian just like Aécio Neves took down Jorge Kajuru. The event occurred on September 19th. If the joke had been about someone else without Wanessa's notoriety and "money," it would have gone unnoticed like so many others made in these three years and a bit of 'Custe o Que Custar', but since it was about the wife of Ronaldo's partner in the sports marketing company 9ine, Marcos Buaiz's partner took offense. The worst part wasn't even that; it was seeing the outrage of Rafinha's "fair-weather friend," Marco Luque (who, coincidentally, is or was until yesterday the spokesperson for the same telephone company that sponsors the retired player), also from CQC, who released the following statement: “Regarding the joke made by Rafinha Bastos on the CQC program, which aired on September 19th, as a father, I understand and support the outrage and indignation of Marcus Buaiz, ​​a man I know and respect. If he made a joke with this context about my family, I would certainly be offended. It was definitely an idiotic joke, in very bad taste.” To Mr. Luque, I leave the phrase by Danilo Gentili (Rafinha Bastos' partner in the Comedians Club venture), addressed to him and which was deleted from Twitter after all the repercussions: “I always saw something more significant being built by a comedian lynched for talking nonsense than by a darling for sucking up.” If he's in there and says that, who am I to disagree? (His best friend Ronaldo doesn't want to film the operator's commercial with him anymore, after all, he doesn't want his image associated with CQC. Serves the suck-up right!)

Reflection #4 – Against the poor, everything is permitted. But against the rich and powerful... What happened to Mr. Boris Casoy when, at the end of 2009, he uttered the outrageous phrase: "What a load of crap, two garbage collectors wishing each other happiness... from atop their brooms... two garbage collectors... the lowest on the work scale..." And there, it wasn't a character, IT WAS HIMSELF, do you understand the difference, Brazilian fans?

Reflection #5 – Rock in Rio, a lesson: Did you know that in the song 'Cigaro' by System Of a Down (a great rock band, no doubt), one of the lines is: "My p... is much bigger than yours, my p... even comes out the door with such a pure feeling, it catches you screaming to come back." I didn't see any of the thousands of spectators watching the show complain about indecent exposure, and everything was broadcast live by Rede Globo and its cable channel Multishow. Could it be because the song was sung in English (and many people don't even know what they're listening to and watching), since if it were in Portuguese, the show probably wouldn't have been broadcast live by the same network, which cut Rage Against the Machine for much less than that? (Vocalist Zach de la Rocha wore an MST cap during a show at SWU last year).

Reflection #6 – Is Brazil conservative? Not at all, have you heard the lyrics sung by Mulher Filé (song Estaladinha) or MC Catra (song Passa Nela)? – That's just one example, you self-appointed guardians of morality! – Not the commercial ones, but the ones sung at funk parties. I believe many of the people who criticized this love to dance to those two songs, or isn't that also freedom of expression? Even the 'Tremendão' Erasmo Carlos will have a song that references oral sex in the soap opera 'Aquele Beijo', which is scheduled to premiere at 19 pm on October 17th on Rede Globo. Did you know that, you puritans? There were even some idiots saying that Rafinha's tattoo influences a person's character. If that's the case, then a man who wears earrings is gay and many people who wear suits and ties are honest. What hypocrisy!

Reflection #7 – Comedians are rightly mocking the situation: “Guys, no jokes about anything related to @ClaroRonaldo. That is, no jokes about Wanessa, fat people, and transvestites,” wrote comedian Murilo Gun, for example. Murilo Couto, Gentili's colleague on the talk show “Agora É Tarde,” observed: “And they talk about the decline of humor. Chico Anysio made heavy jokes, the difference is that he was wearing a wig, the rudeness becomes criticism.” Marcelo Madureira, the most unfunny of the Cassetas, has a completely different view from most comedians: “When you offend someone, it's because there was no humor, it failed. What I find curious about Rafinha Bastos is that he has a kind of adolescent humor. It's silly.” Imagine if Lula were to sue him too, or does anyone forget that he called the former president a crook and a bum on the Manhattan Connection program, which at the time was broadcast on GNT? I was almost forgetting. For Madureira, this is freedom of expression!

Reflection #8 – Will Danilo Gentili be next? Who guarantees that the departure of the host of "Agora É Tarde," from the CQC crew, is solely due to him moving to his own daily program, and not because of the comment he made about President Dilma Rousseff, published in the British newspaper 'The Observer'?: "Voting for Dilma because she was tortured? Fuck it. Did I ask for her to be?", the publication stated. "Seriously. A president has to be smart. If she was arrested and tortured, it's because she was an idiot." After all, another mocker and provocateur in the group of harmless figures like Rafael Cortez and Felipe Andreoli could ruin the program, driving away the big advertisers. So it's better that he suffers alone on his show, which airs almost at bedtime.

Summary of the Opera: All this just goes to show that many Brazilians don't think for themselves. If Mr. Ronaldo Nazário hadn't unleashed the Tea Party mentality within some people, nothing would have happened; that television is tied to sporting, political, financial, and religious power, and if these are criticized, those who oppose them can prepare their "coffin." The lesson also remains that the atmosphere behind the scenes of CQC isn't the best, with two very distinct poles. One more aggressive, attacking everything and everyone with disproportionate force (Danilo Gentili and Rafinha Bastos), and another that perfectly embodies the motto: apples and grapes in the mouths of my friends and eggs and tomatoes for my enemies (Luque and Tas). This raises the questions: Do we really have freedom of expression in this country? Why don't we react with the same force against the chaos in public health, against the corruption that corrodes Brazil in the public and private spheres, against the increase in rates for essential services, or against those who practice "Gerson's Law" in the small and large things of our daily lives? As for Rafinha Bastos, it remains to be seen whether he will be a Howard Stern (millionaire and prestigious) or an Andrew Dice Clay (faded and forgotten). It's something to think about. Since today it's the outspoken comedian, tomorrow it could be me and other journalists who write more critical articles. You, for commenting with more anger on a certain subject, filmmakers like José Padilha, who put the guts of corruption in almost all their films, cartoonists and illustrators like my friend Roque Sponholz, who forcefully and violently attack the government and the opposition, the vlogger Felipe Neto, who makes videos mocking some celebrities, and so on. As the great poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade said: "It's easy to judge people who are being exposed by circumstances. It's difficult to find and reflect on your own mistakes or try to do something differently that you've already done very wrong. And that's how we lose special people." That's all.

Eder Fonseca is the founder of the portal Market Overview.