Toma!

July 23, 2011 1:58 PM

In 1875, the Portuguese cartoonist and caricaturist Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro invented an “everyman” to express the opinion of “Zé Povinho” – “ José of the People”, or “John Doe". His most famous “opinion” is the “manguito”, a universally-recognizable symbolic affront to the status quo, with the slogan “Toma!”, or “take that!” In the wake of the downgrade of Portugal’s sovereign debt to “junk” by Moody’s, the Portuguese were outraged. They reportedly jammed up the Moody's site. Zé Povinho responded with his usual aplomb. The figurines are made by hand and the anti-Moodys one went on sale this week. [Last link in Portuguese; some NSFW language and rude gestures in some of the links]
posted by chavenet (5 comments total)

Oh, my friends and relatives are going to love the Moody's response.
posted by Relay at 2:33 PM on July 23, 2011

Re "manguito", An example of culture shock: in Japan, that gesture means "I'll do my best". It doesn't mean "Up yours!"
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:37 PM on July 23, 2011

Why is Zé Povinho in a barrel?
posted by ardgedee at 7:30 PM on July 23, 2011

This is fantastic, on so many levels. Lovely FPP ... lovely metafilter... Thank you
posted by infini at 2:25 AM on July 24, 2011

Imagine, if as a result of the shit that is going on in congress, the debt ceiling is not raised and America defaults its debts, causing Moody's to downgrade it. Immediately, some tea partier starts selling t-shirts with Uncle Sam giving Moody's the finger. Would you find that cute?

Portugal is the victim of its own fiscal irresponsibility. Instead of blaming Moody's, they should be blaming themselves.

It's interesting how in another thread someone just posted the Spanish take on the same subject. Stay classy, Spain and Portugal. Way for accountability.
posted by falameufilho at 7:06 AM on July 25, 2011