A beloved Brazilian clown received more than 1.3 million votes and was elected to Congress. More astonishing, his vote total surpassed every other candidate in the country, nearly doubling the total of his nearest rival:

Tiririca, or Francisco Oliveira Silva to give him his real name, was elected as a federal deputy for Sao Paulo with more than 1.3 million votes.

Tiririca, or "Grumpy", had slogans such as: "It can't get any worse."

Another celebrity winner was ex-footballer Romario, elected federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro.

Tiririca won 1,353,355 votes - well ahead of the next best-supported politician, former Rio state governor Antony Garotinho, who took more than 694,000 votes to be elected a federal deputy for the state.

Joining them in Brasilia will be Romario, the striker who helped Brazil win the 1994 World Cup. Fellow footballer and 1994 team-mate Bebeto was elected state deputy for Rio.

But the main sensation of the election campaign was Tiririca, who ran humorous campaign adverts on YouTube that attracted millions of hits.

"What does a federal deputy do? Truly, I don't know. But vote for me and I will find out for you," was one of his messages.

Of course, such a thing could never happen in America, right? Oh, wait...

Then again, our clowns in Congress don't have the guts to wear make up and dress up in funny clothes. We can only tell their true calling by the way they act once they get to Washington.