Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva (born 1 May 1965), best known by his stage name Tiririca, is a Brazilian actor, clown, comedian, humorist, politician and singer-songwriter. He currently represents the state of
São Paulo as a representative in the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
of the
National Congress of Brazil.
Tiririca first met national prominence as a singer-songwriter, when his first album ''Florentina'' (1997) topped charts. Proving to be a
one-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...
, he abandoned his musical career after recording two more albums and started work as an actor and comedian in television. Later, again received attention in Brazilian media in 2010, during his run for representative for
São Paulo in the
lower house
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
Congress, eventually becoming the second-most-voted congressman in
Brazil's history.
Early life and career
Born in
Itapipoca
(''The city of the three climates'')
, motto =
, image_map = Ceara Municip Itapipoca.svg
, map_caption = Location in Ceará
, pushpin_map = Brazil
, pushpin_map_caption = Location in Br ...
,
Ceará
Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the ...
, to an extremely poor family, Silva began working at the age of six. When he was eight years old, after seeing a circus performing in his home town, Tiririca joined them and started working as a clown. His stage name "Tiririca" (meaning "
coco-grass
''Cyperus rotundus'' (coco-grass, Java grass, nut grass, purple nut sedge or purple nutsedge, red nut sedge, Khmer ''kravanh chruk''Martin, Robert & Pol Chanthy, 2009''Weeds of Upland Cambodia'', ACIAR Monagraph 141, Canberra.) is a species of ...
") dates from this period; his mother coined it in idiomatic reference to his very strong, bitter, ill-tempered personality as a child.
Following the success of his comedy singing performances in local circuses, his circus-owner employeralong with local businessmensponsored the production of his first album and distribution of its first 1,000 copies. Soon his album met regional success in Brazil's
Northeast
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
, selling 1.5 million certified copies; this aroused the attention of larger record companies, such as
Sony Music, who bought the record and launched it nationally in 1997. Just a few weeks following the national launch, ''Florentina'' broke charts sales records previous established by
Mamonas Assassinas
Mamonas Assassinas was a Brazilian satirical rock band. Their musical style employed a humorous mixture between rock and a wide range of styles, often borrowing elements from other music, among which were the main riff of the Portuguese Vira (" ...
. Tiririca also broke television-audience records whenever he appeared.
His first album also gave rise to media controversy; it contained the song "''Veja os cabelos dela''" (English: "look at her hair"), considered racist by some observers. Following a lawsuit for racism, the album was seized from stores by a court order and the song suffered an unofficial ban from major radio stations. Tiririca was eventually acquitted of the charges, but the album was nevertheless re-released without the song.
Tiririca also went on to record two more albums''Tiririca'' (1997) and ''Dança da Rapadura'' (1999). Both failed to match ''Florentinas sales. From 1999 onwards, excepting a short 2004 hiatus, Tiririca focused on his career as an actor and comedian.
After leaving
SBT
sbt is an open-source build tool for Scala and Java projects, similar to Apache's Maven and Gradle.
Its main features are:
*Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks
*Continuous compilation, t ...
in 2004, Tiririca recorded the album ''Alegria do Forró'', which was a commercial failure.
Television work
With his musical career on decline, Tiririca appeared in the comedy TV show ''Vila do Tiririca'', broadcast on now-defunct
Rede Manchete. In late 1999, he became a cast member of
Rede Record's comedy series ''Escolinha do Barulho''. After that show's cancellation in 2002, he transferred to
SBT
sbt is an open-source build tool for Scala and Java projects, similar to Apache's Maven and Gradle.
Its main features are:
*Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks
*Continuous compilation, t ...
, where he was granted a comedy segment in ''A Praça é Nossa''.
Following a hiatus, he returned to
Rede Record in 2006 after being invited by fellow comedian and personal friend
Tom Cavalcante to take part in his ''
Show do Tom
''Show do Tom'' was a Brazilian comedy and talk show aired by RecordTV and launched on September 27, 2004. Two years ago, the program was on Sunday at 5pm, but now is Sunday 11pm. The program has also changed; before it was recommended free for ...
''. Tiririca again met national success with his character "008" on the ''Bofe de Elite'' segment of ''Show do Tom'', a parody of
José Padilha's ''
Tropa de Elite'' series.
Political career
In 2010, Tiririca announced he would run in the
2010 Brazilian general election
General elections were held in Brazil on 3 October 2010 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no presidential candidate received more than 50% in the first round of voting, a second round was held on 31 October to choos ...
s for representative from São Paulo in the
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
after being invited to run by the
Brazilian Republic Party. His electoral ads portrayed him in his Tiririca persona and used satirical and alliterative slogans, including "''O que é que faz um deputado federal? Na realidade, eu não sei. Mas vote em mim que eu te conto''" (English: "What does a federal congressman do? Actually, I don't knowbut vote for me and I'll tell you"), "''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 to help all Brazilian families... especially mine").
Such slogans moved a group of state congressional candidates to file complaints with the electoral attorney's office, stating Tiririca was insulting the National Congress and all public offices with his lack of political projects and also his satirical attitude towards the election and politics. The complaint, however, was dismissed by the office.
Tiririca was denounced as an
illiterate by ''
Época'' in its 24 September 2010 edition. This statement, if true, would invalidate his candidacy. Soon after the release of the ''Época'' edition that claimed Tiririca's illiteracy,
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
MaurÃcio Lopes sued Tiririca for forging his signature in his candidacy forms. Despite the trial having not yet taken place and all the negative media attention about his alleged illiteracy, on 3 October 2010, Tiririca became the most-voted-for congressman in the
2010 Brazilian general election
General elections were held in Brazil on 3 October 2010 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no presidential candidate received more than 50% in the first round of voting, a second round was held on 31 October to choos ...
s (and the second-most-voted-for in Brazilian history, after
Enéas Carneiro
Enéas Ferreira Carneiro (, , ; November 5, 1938 – May 6, 2007) was a Brazilian polymath, cardiologist, physicist, mathematician, professor, writer, military serviceman and politician. He represented the state of São Paulo in the National Ch ...
), winning his seat for
São Paulo with 1,348,295 votes (6.35 percent of electors).
On 30 October 2010, Tiririca's defense team alleged that he suffered from
dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a learning disability of written expression, which affects the ability to write, primarily handwriting, but also coherence. It is a specific learning disability (SLD) as well as a transcription disability, meaning that it is a wri ...
, which prevented him from holding a pen firmly. They further alleged that Tiririca's wife helped him write the literacy statement in his own hand, as demanded by Brazilian electoral law. She is said to have placed her hand over his to help him hold the pen firmly as he was writing. Also due to this condition, the defense said, Tiririca could not take any writing tests.
The explanation, however, runs contrary to a video recorded by ''Época'' in September and the accompanying statement that gave rise to the suspicions of illiteracy. The pictures show Tiririca giving his autograph to a fan. The magazine narrates, "Tiririca secures a notebook with his left hand and scribbles a circular signature with his right hand. He further writes the letters for his name, and shows no trouble whatsoever holding the pen".
Following a court order, Tiririca underwent a simple reading and writing test on 11 November 2010, which found that he was indeed literate. Although the prosecutor appealed against this decision, claiming the thirty-percent score in the test was too low to be acceptable as proof,
federal judge Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state/provincial/local level.
United States
A US federal judge is appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate in accordance with Article 3 of ...
Walter de Almeida Guilherme rejected the appeal.
Thus, Tiririca was inaugurated under heavy applause by those present in the ceremony on 17 December 2010. That same day Tiririca revealed his political project, focused primarily in cultural advancement, namely helping circus artists, financing cultural projects, increasing federal funds allotted to primary education, and legally fighting prejudice against his fellow Northeastern people.
In December 2017, Tiririca stated that he would not run in the
2018 general election, citing that he was too embarrassed by his colleagues. After that, the deputy announced that he would run for reelection in the
2018 elections
The following elections are scheduled to occur in 2018. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world.
Africa
*2018 Djiboutian parliamentary election 23 February 2018
*2018 Sierra Leonean general elect ...
. In the general election on 7 October he was re-elected to a third term. In 2022, he was re-elected with 71,754 votes, the lowest of any candidate in São Paulo to be elected.
[https://resultados.tse.jus.br/oficial/app/index.html#/m/eleicao-cargo/6;e=e544;uf=sp;ufbu=sp]
See also
*
List of Brazilian actors
*
List of Brazilian politicians
*
List of comedians
*
List of humorists
A humorist (American English) or humourist (British English) is an intellectual who uses humor in writing or public speaking. Humorists are distinct from comedians, who are show business entertainers whose business is to make an audience laugh, ...
*
List of singer-songwriters
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiririca
1965 births
20th-century Brazilian male actors
20th-century composers
20th-century Brazilian male singers
20th-century Brazilian singers
21st-century Brazilian male actors
21st-century composers
Brazilian clowns
Brazilian male comedians
Brazilian male singer-songwriters
Brazilian male television actors
Brazilian humorists
Living people
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from São Paulo
Liberal Party (Brazil, 2006) politicians