Fuck them birds
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/tweets-of-fictional-galvao-birds-echo-online/ A colleague on our Graphics desk, Sergio Peçanha, points out that the vuvuzela is not the only thing generating a maddening din during World Cup matches in South Africa. Apparently, Brazilian soccer fans have been reaching for the mute button to block out the commentary of Galvão Bueno, the country’s best-known sports announcer.
So annoying do they find his pronouncements on the tournament that the phrase “Cala Boca Galvão,” (or, “Shut Up Galvão” in Portuguese) became Twitter’s top trending topic on Monday.
As Raphael Tsavkko Garcia explains in a post in the Global Voices blog, the sudden appearance of this phrase at the very top of Twitter’s list of trending topics led to speculation among nonspeakers of Portuguese about what it could possibly mean. That in turn led some Brazilians to offer elaborate and entirely fictional explanations, the most popular of which was that the phrase actually means “Save the Galvão,” a supposedly endangered species of bird that can only be saved by a Twitter campaign.
On Sunday, a hoax video appeared on YouTube imploring the world to help save the Galvão birds from extinction — by “retweeting” the phrase “Cala Boca Galvão” on Twitter. So far, it seems to be working — the video has been watched more than 200,000 times and not one Galvão has expired today.
CALA BOCA GALVAO stands for “Shut up Galvao”.
For many, Galvão Bueno is considered unbearable as a sports narrator although he is the official narrator of the Brazilian National Football Team and of the most important football and volleyball matches in Brazil since 1993 as well as of the Formula 1 races.
The World Cup barely began and TV Globo's reporter Galvão Bueno is already being quoted by the Brazilian public. The phrase ‘Cala Boca Galvão' became a worldwide hit of Twitter during the opening ceremony of the competition, which was presented by him and journalist Fatima Bernardes in South Africa
The public showed discontent with both narrator and presenter and the phrase expressing disapproval with his performance at the opening ceremony became the leader Trending Topic (TT) in Brazil, a phrase that represents the words and / or expressions discussed in the country's microblog.
In no time, “cala boca galvao” hitted the worldwide trending tpics and people from all over the world tried to understand what was going on.
shafiraaulyapn: who's CALA BOCA GALVAO ? @,@
LuizRedfield: o Brasil dominou o Twitter! CALA BOCA GALVAO em primeiro no Worldwide! O resto do mundo não tá entendendo nada!
Brazil dominated Twitter! CALA BOCA GALVAO first in
Worldwide! The rest of the world is clueless!
This World Cup [CALA BOCA GALVAO] and [BOCA GALVAO] are driving the “gringos” crazy: 1st and 3rd place on TT while FIFA WORLD CUP and #WORLDCUP are in 5th and 6th!
Initially, twitter users in other countries thought the “CALA BOCA GALVAO” was a campaign in Brazil to protect an endangered bird. A twitter user in the United States posted: “Galvao is a very rare bird in Brazil. SHUT UP means SAVE, Brazilians are very sad because many GALVAO die every day”. And also: “SHUT UP GALVAO, the world cannot live without this bird.” Others have asked if it was a campaign by the environmental NGO Greenpeace: “Cala Boca Galvao is a new project for Greenpeace?”
However, when people in other countries found that this was not a brazilian environmental campaign asking for the protection of the “Cala Boca Galvão”, they began publishing on twitter:” SHUT UP GALVAO is not a rare bird in Brazil. “Shut up Galvão” is a sports announcer hated by people down here.” See that when referring to Brazil some foreigners used the phrase “people down here”.
Another explanation, no less sadistic, but less used, is that “CALA BOCA GALVAO” is the new music by Lady Gaga. Except that this version has not won many fans as the poor threatened bird. But the worst (or best) of all, wasthat foreigners joined in. The “CALA BOCA GALVAO” invaded the site and became a joke among Brazilians: “If Galvão is a bird according to the gringos… it's singing is unbearable,” joked @Pedrocost on Twitter
And the joke still continues as the Brazilians keep trying to “explain” what “CALA BOCA GALVAO” means. See some twitter reactions:
BrazilianMcFly: News: CALA BOCA GALVAO is the new single of Lady Gaga in Spanish rythm about a brazilian bird in extinction.
This thing CALA BOCA GALVAO is the biggest insider joke in history. An entire country laughing when the rest of the world didn't get the joke.
nicholashf12: So what is the meaning of CALA BOCA GALVAO??? That's such a horrible nome for a Lady Gaga's song. I won't buy it, even for any bird's sake!
nandoaires: CALA BOCA GALVAO Foundation will give US$ 0,31 for each tweet mentioning CALA BOCA GALVAO. Save the birds, RT.
