Sometimes there's nothing you can do but laugh at the people running your country. Canada had Rob Ford, we may have Donald Trump (probably not), and Mexico has Enrique Peña Nieto, who has been president of the country since 2012. Nieto, who is known for skewering names, screwing up geography, and sounding a little bit too rehearsed in his public appearances, has become a sort of joke for Mexico's comedians—many who find the politician's blunders to be prime material.
"I want to be the best comedian in Mexico and I think I'm on the right track, stand-up comic Gon Curiel said during his bit a few weeks back. "I'm resigning myself to the fact that it won't happen. I'll never be, at least as long as there is new material from the indisputable best comedian in Mexico: Enrique Peña Nieto."
As reported by BuzzFeed, it seems like Curiel and other comedians are capitalizing off of Nieto's many mishaps. While preparing for a state of the union address, Nieto was filmed dropping the presidential sash. The video went viral. In an interview with a Spanish newspaper he was quoted saying he didn't know how much a kilo of tortillas cost. He added, "I am not a housewife." The list goes on.
El Conde Fabregat, another Mexican comedian, channeled Nieto in one of his recent acts, mocking the president's uncanny ability to mispronounce words. "We do everything with a lot of cynicism, I shone while saying infrastruc...infrast...infrastruct..." Fabregat finished his act by saying, "I know they don't applaud me," mimicking an actual thing uttered by the president after his announcement of anti-corruption measures was received with silence from the audience.
While poking fun at the figure may seem all fun and good, other Mexicans comedians mentioned in BuzzFeed's article highlight a trend in media censorship in their acts, a scary move that's only gotten worse since Nieto took office in 2012.
Hopefully their acts can go on without any trouble.
