Video: Brazilian President Confuses John Kerry With 'Dumb And Dumber' Actor Jim Carrey
03:30 GMT 02.11.2021 (Updated: 04:26 GMT 02.11.2021)
© REUTERS / ADRIANO MACHADO
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has become the subject of widespread mockery on social media after appearing to confuse US Climate Envoy John Kerry with comedy actor Jim Carrey in an interview during the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
"I talked with Jim Carrey [but it's] something private and unfortunately I can't tell you", Bolsonaro told reporters on the sidelines of the COP26 summit on Monday. Footage of the remarks uploaded to Twitter quickly went viral, drawing nearly 150,000 views in just over an hour.
🌎 Presidente Jair Bolsonaro confunde John Kerry, enviado especial dos Estados Unidos para as mudanças climáticas, com o ator JIM CARREY.
— Eixo Político (@eixopolitico) November 1, 2021
Sim, o ator de filmes como Debi e Loide, O Máscara e Ace Ventura. pic.twitter.com/vrWDmGdGZq
Politicians and journalists alike descended on the Scottish city this weekend for the two-week summit officially known as the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. But after just two days, the conference is already in danger of being overshadowed by embarrassing missteps of its participants.
With footage of US President Joe Biden appearing to doze off during the opening speeches on Monday quickly becoming a viral sensation, Bolsonaro was just the latest in a series of politicians and media figures to humiliate themselves on the global stage.
Earlier, John Kerry himself was effectively locked out of the conference when an officer who apparently didn't recognise him reportedly prevented the former US secretary of state from crossing a police line. Wolf Blitzer was another source of amusement for thousands of internet users who pointed out that the CNN anchor mistakenly set up his entire studio in the wrong Scottish city.
"I'm reporting from Edinburgh in Scotland where 20,000 world leaders and delegates have gathered for the COP26 Climate Summit", Blitzer tweeted on Monday in a post accompanied by a photo of the anchor proudly posing before the famed Edinburgh castle – around 50 miles from Glasgow, where the event is taking place.
— Ş̧̛̭̺͔͕̖͉̞̩͙͙̦̲͉̦͠t̛̜̼̲̬͖͙́u̕͞͏̥̪͇̼͙̮̺̣̣͕̹́ͅ (@stucoates) November 1, 2021
The summit was controversial long before it kicked off. For weeks, both left and right-leaning critics have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy of heads of state flying in on private jets in the name of reducing humanity's reliance on hydrocarbons. Others mocked the summit as a performative and self-congratulatory exercise by the same wealthy elite they say are to blame for the issue.
"As predicted, the elite have turned Glasgow Cop26 as one giant pat on the back for the ruling. Speaker after speaker, Boris Johnson the worst, boasting about how amazing they all are at cutting carbon", wrote former Labour Party whip Claudia Webbe on Monday.
Whether they understand that climate change is man-made, it seems one thing observers can agree on is that the summit stands little chance of tackling this urgent issue; as one particularly popular post put it, "COP26 is a joke".
Bolsonaro's latest blunder will likely do little to convince critics otherwise.
