Patriota Do Caminhão / Truck's Patriot

About

Patriota do Caminhão or Truck's Patriot in English, refers to a 2022 viral video of a man clinging to the front of a truck driving at high speed in Brazil. The video spread across social media, with people creating montages of the man flying to the moon, party costumes and other memes based on the "Truck's Patriot."

Origin

After the results of the 2022 Brazilian General Election on October 30th, 2022, many supporters of the defeated President Jair Bolsonaro^[1] went out to protest the results,^[2] blocking streets and roads across the country. One of the protesters, known as Junior Cesar Peixoto, gained fame after jumping in front of a truck on November 3rd, 2022, trying to prevent it from leaving a crowd blockage on the road.

His action resulted in him being dragged for a few kilometers on the road (see video below), clinging to the truck's windshield. The video reposted^[3] by Choquei, reaching 2.4 million views and 35,900 likes in five days, shows the inside of the vehicle and the trucker saying that he stopped the truck so that the protester could leave the windshield, but he refused, so the driver kept on driving many miles per hour.

Another angle of the unusual scene was spotted by people on the road. This video by @GarciaIlki^[4] shows the truck driving at high speeds while the man, wearing Brazil's soccer jersey (a common uniform used by Jair Bolsonaro's supporters), clings to the truck's windshield. The video has 4.7 million views and 13,000 likes in five days (seen below).

Spread

The video quickly went viral on social media, with people calling the protestor "patriota do caminhão" in Portuguese, which translates to "truck's patriot," in reference to the man's presumed support for the current right-wing Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro. Twitter user @JefinhoMenes^[5] posted an edit of the video, making it look as if the man is flying to space, garnering 426,000 views and 16,200 likes in five days (seen below).

This other tweet put screenshots of the video alongside Garfield's toys with a "solve the captcha" montage. Posted by @phreddiec^[6], the tweet received 473 likes and 62 retweets in five days (seen below).

The official Netflix Brazil account^[7] made fun of the situation by sharing a Bee Movie scene where the main character flies in front of a truck
and gets stuck on the windshield. The video, posted on November 3rd, 2022, has 3.6 million views and 149,600 likes in five days (seen below).

Meme Costumes

As the events of the "patriota do caminhão" occurred close to Halloween, people dressed as the man for local costume parties in Brazil, like this video by @zedalves,^[8] posted a day after the original video (November 4th, 2022), showing a girl with a cardboard truck costume. It received 1.2 million views and 60,000 likes in four days (seen below).

Twitter user @brunumartinelle^[9] tweeted on November 6th, 2022, sharing a meme that expresses his disbelief during a costume party after people choose the guy dressed as the "patriota do caminhão" as the winner of the party. His caption reads "me / who the public chose" and the post received 61,200 likes in one day (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References