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The Capital of Brazil Is Buenos Aires: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Now the monkeys cannot bite me ... I am like sugar to them!"''|'''Ronaldo''' (thanking Lisa for donating enough money so his orphanage could buy a door), ''[[The Simpsons]],'' "Blame it on Lisa"}}
...[[Rio|when it's not Rio de Janeiro]].<ref>At least Rio de Janeiro is in Brazil. It still isn't [[w:Brasília|the capital]], though.</ref>
Some country somewhere in [[Latin Land]]; the spoken language is Spanish, like everywhere in Latin Land. It is composed by only one state (which is overrun by the Amazon forest) called São Paulo, whose capital is Rio de Janeiro, but it is also called Buenos Aires. Every Brazilian woman is stunningly beautiful. By the way, whenever you're in a Brazilian city, it'll be a ''favela'' (what Brazilian people call shantytowns), which is a place that makes the industrial era slums look like bright [[Utopia
Whenever you see a Brazilian (or really, any South American) in fiction, expect him to look like a stereotypical Mexican or Latino. Also, whenever [[The Hero]] goes to Brazil for whatever reason [[It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans|it will be during Carnaval. Always.]] Well, it would be easier to just make a list of what is wrong with Brazil on fiction:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|'''In TV Land''' ||'''In Real Life'''
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|The women wear elaborate dresses and hats with fruit or plumes of feathers on them, ''à la'' Carmen Miranda. ||The ''tutti-frutti'' hat is a Hollywood fabrication, and the extravagant feathered headdresses are only worn on the annual Carnaval street parades.
|-
|Everyone lives in abject poverty, and every urban location is a favela. ||One of the main social problems in the country is precisely the huge income difference between rich and poor people, with the richest in a state similar to Belgium's upper classes and the poorest looking more like India's lower
|-
|[[Latin Lover|All women and most men are insanely beautiful]] ([[Spicy Latina|and slutty]], if the fiction work in question is particularly fond of stereotypes). The Latino stereotype pervades, down to the cultural references. Black people are virtually unseen. ||Black people are rarer than in the US, but various white/black mixes are very common. Brazil has a ''massively'' mixed population<ref>as in fact do a few South American countries, Argentina and Chile being the most significant</ref> with immigrants from all over Europe and Asia.
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|Geography, as in most [[Hollywood Atlas]] tropes, is completely messed up, usually overlapping the Iguazu Falls, the Amazon Forest and Rio de Janeiro in the same place. ||These landmarks are thousands of miles apart. You can't "hop" from Rio to the Amazon River any more than you can "hop" from Miami to the Grand Canyon.
|-
|The country is depicted as a sparsely populated backwater town. ||Brazil is the fifth in the world in both
|-
|Brazilians speak Spanish. ||The official language is Portuguese, and slightly overtakes Spanish as the most spoken language in South America.
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And for the record, the real capital of Brazil is Brasília, which is no hamlet itself at 2.5 million people. Rio used to be the capital up until April 21, 1960, when Brasília was founded by then-Brazilian President [[wikipedia:Juscelino Kubitschek|Juscelino Kubitschek]] (see? With a Czech name like that, he could be from Chicago!) It even is considered a [[wikipedia:Brasília|World Heritage Site]] by UNESCO (Buenos Aires is not in Brazil at all, but neighboring Argentina). Brasília actually represents another similarity between Brazil and the United States: like [[Washington DC]], it was a city [[Space Brasilia|built from the ground up to be the national capital]], and their metropolitan areas are similar in population.
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'' has the protagonist Shinichi Chiaki going to São Paulo as a guest conductor. What does he find at first? Asses, thongs, beaches (although São Paulo is far away from any beaches), hot sun... He even hallucinates about Carnival while conducting.
* For an anime that surely shows a love for Brazil, ''[[Michiko to Hatchin]]'' [[Critical Research Failure|fails miserably]] in several key basic information about the country. Surely you can't blame the Japanese for giving Japanese names to everybody, but then they try to balance it out with Brazilian surnames but the surnames doesn't make any sense as surnames. The anime can't even get something as basic as some of its local treats right by their local names. "Água de coco" (coconut water) is called "suco de coco" (coconut juice) and "caldo de cana" (sugarcane syrup) is called "suco de cana" (sugarcane juice) on the street market signs, when absolutely no Brazilian would call then that way.
* ''[[Inazuma Eleven]]'' features the very powerful Brazilian national team The Kingdom. The only team in FFI (that's their World Cup) to sweep 4-0 in their corresponding blocks. Whose captain Mac Roniejo has a special move named "Strike Samba" that obviously shouts "CARNIVAL!" and their special tactic being the Amazon River itself (or at least a humongous wave from the Amazon). And then there's the dark side. They were blackmailed by the [[Big Bad]] Garshield to work for him, since their families are extremely poor. The catch: win the FFI or get sent straight back to the favelas. However, everything else is averted. Their looks are obviously Brazilian, especially the goalkeeper Falcao da Silva (a capoerista on top of that)
== Comic Books ==
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**** On the other hand, those are the only Brazilian comic book characters of any significance. It is a bit odd that both have the same surname, but two characters isn't much of a sample size.
*** But let's not forget that Sunspot liked to say "Dios mio", and that Fire also uses some weird Spanish sometimes...
== Film ==
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** ''[[The Incredible Hulk (film)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' subverted this in many ways, including showing the ethnic diversity, Bruce Banner going to great lengths to learn Portuguese (and struggling with it), people in favelas shown to actually work, it [[It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans|not being Carnival]], among some minor details.
*** They could have hired national actors, though, or at least try better at the accent thing. It's like someone making a film about the US, only everyone talks like [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]].
*** Still, he supposedly leaves Rio and gets fairly easily to a bordering country in the Amazon Rainforest, pretty much on the opposite side of the (very large) country. But this was probably meant to emphasize the Hulk's
* Kind of averted in the infamous movie ''Woman on Top'', where Brazil is portrayed avoiding most of the topics above mentioned, but still the main heroine was interpreted by [[Fake Nationality|a Spanish actress]] ([[
** [[Word of God]] says that they were going to cast a Brazilian actress, but Penelope Cruz was just too damn good to miss.
* ''[[Miami Vice]]'' (the movie version) features Ciudad Del Este, a cosmopolitan boomtown on the tri-border area between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Exactly the kind of city a geography-challenged screenwriter could have made up, but it really exists.
* Lampshaded and played with masterfully, for plot-point effects in ''[[I Still Know What You Did Last Summer]]''. Jennifer Love Hewitt's character wins a radio contest by answering the trivia question "What is the capital of Brazil?" with Rio de Janeiro. She, her [[Black Best Friend]], and their boyfriends don't actually visit Brazil, but towards the end, the revelation that Brazil's capital is actually Brasília leads her to realize that the whole thing was a trap.
* Averted,<ref>Subverted? Avoided?</ref>
** However, the movie originally opened in an exotic South American rainforest.
* ''[[The Rundown]]'' tries its best (specially considering they shot it in Hawaii after the location scouts who traveled to Brazil got stolen there), even managing to put ads for Brazilian beer and some soccer crests in the background. But the atrocious Portuguese and the [[Misplaced Wildlife|baboons]] make it even more hilarious to Brazilians. There's also [[Fake Nationality|American actress Rosario Dawson pretending to be a native Brazilian]], although she's not ''that'' bad.
* Nicely (mostly) averted in Phillipe de Broca's 1964 ''[[That Man From Rio]]''
** Actually, it's pretty accurate about distances - when asked how far it is to Brasilia, the local kid shrugs "Not far; 1,000 kilometers." Adrian sarcastically suggests taking the subway. When they do ride it takes a day and a night and another day. After Brasilia, the action shifts to a floating village on the Amazon and then deep in the rainforest, gotten to by a long plane trip, then a long boat trip.
* Painfully obvious in the (bad) [[James Bond]] movie ''[[Moonraker]]'', which has several scenes set in Rio. Obviously, it's Carnival, and the Sugar Loaf (with its cable cars) is a location, as are the Iguaçu Falls (which fall on the "mixing landmarks" example mentioned above, as they are part of the Amazon river). As well, there's an [[Mayincatec|Aztec temple]] or something ... [[Did Not Do the Research|in the Amazon.]]
* Mostly averted in ''[[Rio]]''. Helps that the director is Brazilian, and one of the actors too. Still they arrive during carnival.
* ''[[2012]]'' has a broadcast showing Rio getting hit by an earthquake (complete with [[Monumental Damage|the Cristo Redentor's destruction]]). They namedrop an actual news station, Globo News. But the broadcaster speaks with a Portuguese accent! (but due to [[Hollywood Science]], let's not dwelve into the fact that Brazil is [[wikipedia:File:Plates tect2 en.svg|far from earthquake zone]])
* ''[[The Producers]]'' plays this trope so straight it's almost a parody with the short musical number "You'll Find Your Happiness In Rio," wherein a band of mariachi accompanies the characters' singing.
{{quote|You'll find your happiness in Rio
[[Did Not Do the Research|The beaches there are strewn with pearls]]
The tropic breezes always blow there
And, so we hear, [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|do the girls]] }}
* In 1941, [[Orson Welles]] tried to make a film about "the real Brazil" called ''[[wikipedia:It's All True (film)|It's All True]]''. Executives from RKO Pictures eventually [[Executive Meddling|killed it]] partway through the filming, at least in part because it didn't adhere to this trope (as it was expressed in the '40s). For example, executives were upset that it showed that at least some Brazilians were poor black people instead of them all being elegant [[Latin Lover]]s.
== Literature ==
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** Funny thing, too, that in the week ''Breaking Dawn'' came out, a massive amount of dead penguins were found in the north litoral, in an unexpected case of [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]].
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In one episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', Dr. House surprises every Brazilian to ever watch the show by saying "castanhas-do-Para" perfectly well in actual Portuguese instead of a Spanish mimic of Portuguese, but then this leads to him diagnosing his patient to be in Brazil because he was somewhere where Carnival was celebrated for a month. Not only is Carnival only celebrated for part of a week in Brazil (or one whole week in the case of the city of Salvador), it would be the rough equivalent of saying the United States doesn't function during the month of Thanksgiving.
** Yeah. Obviously that happens at Christmas.
** Actually, in the sister cities of Recife and Olinda, pre-Carnival "rehearsal" parties start happening as soon as the dust settles from New Year celebrations. So it would be accurate to say that we celebrate Carnival for a month. Salvador isn't very different.
*** Let's face it, the only time Salvador isn't celebrating Carnival is during the week between Christmas and New Year.
** And let's not forget that, in USA, "castanhas do Pará" are known as... "Brazil nuts". But that's not a good excuse, since the Brazil nuts that are sold in USA can come from Brazil, but also from Bolivia and Peru
== Video Games ==
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** One of the early stages are on warehouses of Porto Alegre. It appears that the designers found out there are others cities on Brazil, besides Rio and Buenos Aires. The architecture of the warehouse even looks familiar to a Brazilian's eye! But then a eerie feeling settles in. Why there are posters about coffee plastered on every wall? These buildings are owned by a coffee trading comnpany? In Porto Alegre? Coffee still is a important export of Brazil, but it never was in Rio Grande do Sul (the state where Porto Alegre is the capital). It feels like breaking in a exports office in Marseilles and finding stacks of marketing material for calvados, and not a single one about pastis. Strange.
* ''Tom Clancy's [[HAWX]]'' had the protagonist and his wingmates defending Rio de Janeiro against an invasion from a hostile foreign entity. Numerous references are made to a presidential palace and the Brazilian leaders.
* ''Sengoku'' 3 have a Brazilian stage, with lots of freak mutants, Tribal sound (in African style) and a huge Mayan temple.
* Snes ''[[Warof Gems]]'' shows some Mayan Temples in background.
* Arcade ''[[Kaiser Knucle]]'' have a triceratops skeleton in the middle of inflammable jungle.
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** The ''King of Fighters' 2001'' averts this somehow, by having a Brazilian stage set in the Interlagos Racetrack.
* The first ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' has one stage set in Amazon, called "Green Hell". However the stage has a huge Aztec temple in the background. [[Ambiguously Brown|Tam Tam]], the owner of the stage, also resembles an Aztec warrior.
== Web Animation ==
* There's an comedy animation in Youtube that plays with this trope. The "O Dia em que o Brasil foi Invadido" (The Day When Brazil was Invaded) shows the ex-president Bush back in 2006 planning to invade Brazil to conquer its natural resources. After being informed that his army forces were being defeated (only thanks to the many problems in the country, like the Tietê river being so polluted that it became toxic and dissolved the USA army's boat), Bush decides to launch an atomic bomb to win the battle, guess which capital he selected as target...
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Averted in the [[Whateley Universe]] with Verdant, who is from one of the worst favelas in Rio de Janeiro, but knows there is more to Rio than where her family lives. And Phase, who has been to Brazil once, when his uncle was meeting with government officials. In Brasilia.
== Western Animation ==
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*** Which is understandable, as not many people in a country would feel confortable if a foreign show would mock their country and possibly ruin its turism, like happened in Brazil. FOX later apologized to Brazilians for the controversial episode and made them an offer to loose tensions. Also, bear in mind that in Brazil (like in the rest of Latin America) there is historically a strong anti-imperialistic sentiment (the support the military dictatorship received from the USA doesn't help matters) and so these jokes are interpreted as hypocritical insults.
*** Then again, it can be seem as a weird case of real life [[Did Not Do the Research]], as we are talking about The Simpsons, a tv show that mocks every country it ever portrayed... [[The United States|their own most than anyone else's]]. It's argued that all the fuss the episode raised was caused mostly by certain tv channels (by that, read the most influential) playing Fourth Estate.
== Real Life ==
* The trope name comes from a real life episode when then-President [[Ronald Reagan]] went to Brazil and, with a grin on his face, said to be "Happy to visit the capital of Brazil, Buenos Aires" (which, for the record, [[You Fail Geography Forever|is the capital of
** This trope is older than that, and that event didn't occur exactly in this way. In the morning following the day of his arrival the President [[Ronald Reagan]] addressed the Brazilian public as "the friendly people of Bolivia" (or Colombia, again). This gaffe was dismissed by the Itamaraty (Brazil's Diplomatic Corps, named as such due to the name of the building they are headquartered at) as result of jet lag but Jornal do Brasil (then an influential local newspaper) quickly pointed that
** As said, he addressed the Brazilian public (including the Brazilian president!) as "the friendly people of Bolivia". To be fair, he immediately recognized his mistake, apologized and said "sorry, that's where I came from". The only thing is... [[Latin Land|he had came from Peru]].
** A local magazine ran a magnificent "advert" after the happening, saying: "The people of Bolivia is thankful for the visit of the [[Take That|president of Canada]]".
* Also, we cannot forget that, even with Brasilia as the capital and São Paulo as the main economic center and preferential entry port for the country (since something like 80% of commercial international flights arrive there), almost all journalists from international media that covers Brazil are based in... Rio de Janeiro.
** The same pattern happens with those weather reports in newspapers, that show the max/min temperatures for the day around the globe. The only Brazilian city that appears is Rio de Janeiro.
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