Brazilian comedian Rafinha Bastos is the self-described king of Twitter.
Photo courtesy Rafinha Bastos

When it comes to that ephemeral attribute known as Twitter influence, Brazilian comedian Rafinha Bastos tops Conan O’Brien, Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher and even President Barack Obama, according to a recent report.

Pretty good for a guy most people in the United States, including Wired.com, had never heard of before.

“Who is @RafinhaBastos?” Wired asked the Twitterverse on Monday, digging into the mystery. “And why is he the most influential person on Twitter?”

Bastos playfully responded a short while later. “I’m Bin Laden after 45 surgeries (I kept the nose),” he tweeted to his 1.8 million (and counting) followers. “If u guys want something from the king: DM.”

Clearly we needed to know more. Wired.com caught up with Bastos by phone Tuesday morning to discuss his raging Twitter popularity, soccer-related death threats, transitioning from journalism to comedy, and the miracle of $4,000 tweets. This interview was conducted in English after agreeing that Bastos’ English was a lot better than my (nonexistent) Portuguese.

Wired.com: So let me ask the obvious question: Who are you?

Rafinha Bastos: I’m a comedian in São Paulo, Brazil. I do stand-up comedy, and I work for a big TV station on a comedy show called CQC. I am also a journalist on A Liga.

There, I am a plain and simple journalist like Anderson Cooper. I get closer to the story and experience everything.

I have a degree in journalism, but I am mostly a comedian.

Wired.com: I used Google Translate on your Wikipedia page to convert it from Portuguese, so this might be inaccurate, but it seems like you’re also heavily involved with sports, consulting with SC International and even played basketball for University of Nebraska?

Bastos: No, no, no. I am just a famous guy who likes soccer. But yes, my actual sport is basketball. I played for my whole life and one year at Chatham University in Nebraska, not the state university, before I got injured.

But everyone has one soccer team in Brazil, and that gets big in the social media. People talk about everyone’s teams and things get out of control, and bad things are said. And then there are death threats.

But I just tweet comedy. That get’s too crazy.

Wired.com: So do you mostly stick to comedy on Twitter, or do you tweet news stories?

Bastos: I mostly do jokes and sometimes current events. All of my jokes come from my head.

I create jokes, sometimes pictures and things that I see. Most of my jokes get about 2,000 retweets each time.

Wired.com: Wow. I wish I spoke Portuguese. And the tweets about current events?

Bastos: Yeah, things that I see. But it’s always really stand-up comedy. You know — I’ve been doing this since about 1998, doing the comedy on the internet.

Wired.com: What were you doing back in ‘98? Uploading to comedy directories?

Bastos: [laughs] Yes! I had a connection to the web before I had a connection to the TV. I uploaded video on these sites when nobody was using the web, because I could do the TV that I liked to do. It became my TV channel.

Wired.com: And you were just broadcasting to local areas?

Bastos: Oh man. Yeah, my city of Porto Alegre had about 1.5 million people. Sometimes I would have 10,000 people viewing my videos, and then all the servers would crash. And the companies would send me big penalties in the mail and tell me to pay.

No one was doing this then. They couldn’t believe it. This was 1999.

Wired.com: So the first Brazilian YouTube?

Bastos: Ohhhh, man. YouTube was such a lifesaver.

Wired.com: So do you remember your first time on Twitter?

Bastos: Oh my God. Yeah, like 2008. And everyone was just saying what they were doing. I didn’t get it. I was like, “Why are they just informing everyone what they’re doing?”

So my first tweet was, “I’m just using this shit.” How could I be doing anything else? I can’t be dying and tweeting.

But then I decided that I would try my jokes on Twitter. And I would watch my jokes.

Wired.com: You mean you’d monitor the retweets and decide if it was good material?

Bastos: Not quite like that. A lot of times jokes are very different when they’re spoken and look shitty when they’re written. I just wanted to practice with them.

I am an artist. I say what is in my head. I’m going to say it because I want to say it.

I also use it to tell people about my next shows of course. And sometimes companies come to me and offer to buy a tweet.

Wired.com: What does that mean? Like you’d tweet, “Try this or that?”

Bastos: No, no. Like Pepsi. They come and say, “We have a new ad campaign around a phrase that translates ‘It can be.’” Many times you go to a restaurant, ask for a Coke and the waiter says, “We only have Pepsi.” So you say, “It can be.” It’s OK.

So I use that phrase to make a joke. I tweeted something like, “You come home, hear your wife moaning in the bedroom. You burst in ready to be angry and fight, and she’s in bed with a beautiful blonde … ‘It can be.’” Something like that. I make it part of the campaign.

Wired.com: I see. How much do they pay you?

Bastos: Oh. The money can be very good. Sometimes up to $4,000 per tweet.

Wired.com: That’s amazing. And the people of Brazil don’t mind that you’re plugging a corporation?

Bastos: People understand that you have to do things on the web for money. I explain sometimes, I tell them I am a bitch to money and people are OK with that as long as you’re being real. That’s what matters.

You have to be real to them. I cannot open my legs every time or people would not listen, but if the joke is funny and I don’t do it too much, people will laugh and wait for the next one.

‘Just say what’s in your head. That’s what this thing was invented for.’

Wired.com: “Being real” always seems to be rule No. 1.

Bastos: Yeah, people get a million followers and start freaking out. “Oh, should I tweet this? Or should I tweet that?”

Just say what’s in your head. That’s what this thing was invented for.

Wired.com: Agreed. So, last question, or more of a wager, I guess. You are one of Twitter’s most influential people, and I have only about 130 followers. Can you prove your clout by getting me 5,000 Brazilian followers? I’m willing to wager a San Francisco Giants World Series T-shirt on it.

Bastos: [laughs] Yes. I will do this for you. But I really would like to try comedy in America soon, maybe New York or L.A. My English needs to get better though.

Wired.com: Seems pretty good already. Now, about my Brazilian followers …