The upcoming 2026 general elections in Brazil will feature a large list of “joke” or “parody” characters such as “Samurai Taxi Driver,” “Plínio Trump,” “Mick Jagger,” and “Henrique Barack Obama,” maintaining a longstanding tradition in Brazilian elections.
Brazil is hours away from holding its 2026 general elections. On October 4, nearly 159 million Brazilian voters head to the polls to cast six different votes and elect a new president of the Republic, regional governors, first and second senators, and federal Congressmen for their respective states. Per the Brazilian Senate, over 20,500 candidacies were collectively registered across the six races as of August, including 13 different presidential candidates.
The South American nation has an eight-decade-old track record of featuring “joke” or “protest” candidates running in the election under a nickname or a parody name — and the upcoming October 4 event will not be an exception, with “Mick Jagger” (no relation to the legendary Rolling Stones singer), a woman who goes by “Tsunami Grandmother,” and a truck driver known as “Lonely Boy” on the larger list of parody candidates who are legitimately running for office on Sunday.
Electoral laws in Brazil allow for such “joke” candidates to run in elections provided they are running with a duly registered political party and stand in full compliance with all of the necessary requirements to register a candidacy.
“Plínio Trump,” whose real name is Plínio Vicentin Junior, is a 59-year-old pilot from Minas Gerais running for Congress under a campaign largely styled and inspired by President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. Vicentin Junior drives around his old vehicle adorned with American flags on its sides, emulating some of Trump’s mannerisms and style while exclaiming the slogan “Make Brazil Great Again.”
The candidate explained to the outlet Itatiaia in August that the “Trump” moniker predates his congressional aspirations. According to Junior, comparisons between him and the American president began in 2015 when fellow members of a WhatsApp helicopter pilot group chat told him, “You look just like Trump.”
“[Trump] is likeable, iconic,” he told the Associated Press this week, and explained that when he campaigned across the city of Juiz de Fora, “Few people sneered at me. Most people smile and hug me.”
Severino Cardoso Sobrinho is a taxi driver from Recife, Pernambuco, in his late 60s who became viral on Brazilian social media in 2021 for his karate and kung fu performances, which earned him the nickname “Samurai Taxi Driver.” Cardoso Sobrinho, who proudly describes himself as an enthusiastic fan of late martial arts legend Bruce Lee, is using his viral nickname to run for Congress on Sunday.
While incumbent socialist president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is running in the presidential election seeking a fourth term, his “good” counterpart is instead running for Congress in the state of São Paulo.
Brazilian Doctor Célio José Morais, currently serving as a city councilor of the São Palo town of Jaboticabal, is running for congress on a campaign blatantly parodying the Brazilian president — but with the important caveat that, unlike the socialist president, he is “good.” Morais is a member of the Liberal Party (PL) led by conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro, whose son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, is running against the real Lula in the upcoming presidential election.
Speaking with Jovem Pan in September, Morais acknowledged that he does take advantage of his physical resemblance to Lula — but emphasized that his ideals are the complete opposite of the “hell” represented by the socialist president. According to his own official website, Dr. Morais is a cardiologist and a lieutenant in the Brazilian Air Force Reserve.
The lyrics of Morais’s official campaign jingle affirm that, unlike President Lula da Silva, the “Good Lula” has ten fingers and has “never stolen from anyone.” The incumbent Brazilian president lost his left pinky finger in a workplace accident in the 1960s and has been convicted of multiple corruption charges in the past.
“Henrique Barack Obama” is the nickname of Cláudio Henrique dos Anjos, a current candidate for Senate in Brazil’s Federal District. Per the Associated Press, individuals who know the candidate pointed out that, while the Brazilian “Obama” has little resemblance to the former U.S. president, his shtick is more about emulating Obama’s “posture.”
One of the best known instances of a “parody” candidate actually being elected in modern Brazilian history is that of Francisco Everardo Oliveira Silva, a comedian, clown, and humorist who goes by the stage name “Tiririca” (“Grumpy”), a nickname that his mother gave him for his ill-tempered demeanor as a child.
Tiririca originally used his clown persona to successfully run for Congress in 2010, utilizing slogans such as, “It can’t get any worse,” and, “What does a federal Congressman do? I really don’t know. Vote for me and I will find out for you.”
At press time, Tiririca is serving as an elected São Paulo Congressman representing the centrist Social Democratic Party. The congressman is back to his comedic antics for his 2026 reelection bid. In one such campaign ad, Tiririca parodies the character He-Man from the classic American 1980s carton series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe — replicating the character’s famous catchphrase: “I have the power!”
“Vote Tiririca. It doesn’t get any worse than this,” the campaign ad’s subtitle reads.