Today in wait, what?: Brazil is home to nearly a dozen Osama bin Laden-themed establishments, including a sit-down restaurant named Bin Laden and Family and a downtown Sao Paulo bar called Bar do Bin Laden, manned by an impersonator (above).
If this makes you scratch your head—and contemplate punching the shithead who’s capitalizing off a long beard and a passing resemblance to a mass-murderer—well, you’re not alone. The proprietor, Francisco Elder Braga Fernandes, reassured Vocativ that the name was merely for marketing purposes…
“I am a man of goodwill. I can’t stand violence,” says Fernandes, 54. “But this was great for business. No one calls me Francisco anymore. It’s Osama or bin Laden.”
That might seem cynical, but then again, this is Brazil, the country that handed carnival over to professionals and holds nothing so sacred that it can’t be parlayed into a punch line. And Fernandes is no exception.
… But he also said this:
“I don’t know much about his life, but I believe he was a good and very religious man, who didn’t kill anyone himself. His followers did everything.”
Uh huh. And Hitler was a misunderstood artist. What the hell.