You can't analyze Brazil too seriously. It's too embarrassing.
Na madrugada de uma terça-feira de fevereiro, o Brasil perdeu uma das vozes mais singulares de sua vida pública: Arnaldo Jabor, jornalista, cineasta e escritor que por décadas tratou as contradições do país com ironia afiada e afeto genuíno, morreu aos 81 anos após complicações de um acidente vascular cerebral. Jabor entendia o Brasil como um teatro do absurdo, e foi precisamente essa lucidez cômica — rara entre os que levam a sério demais o que analisam — que lhe conferiu uma voz insubstituível no jornalismo e no cinema nacionais. Sua partida deixa um silêncio onde antes havia provocação, e um legado que, à sua maneira, já escapou ao controle do próprio autor.
- Após dois meses internado no Hospital Sírio Libanês, Jabor não resistiu às complicações de um AVC isquêmico sofrido em dezembro, e morreu na madrugada de 15 de fevereiro.
- A perda reverberou de imediato no jornalismo brasileiro, onde sua coluna semanal no O Tempo era lida como um termômetro irônico da política e da cultura do país.
- A internet, fiel à lógica absurda que ele mesmo diagnosticava, já havia criado seu próprio problema: artigos falsos circulavam sob seu nome, ganhando vida própria como se o Brasil precisasse inventar mais Jabor do que ele conseguia produzir.
- A Sempre Editora, publicadora do O Tempo, prestou homenagem formal, reconhecendo que sua contribuição foi decisiva para a credibilidade do jornal — mas nenhum arranjo fúnebre havia sido anunciado no momento de sua morte.
Arnaldo Jabor morreu na madrugada de 15 de fevereiro, aos 81 anos, após dois meses hospitalizado no Sírio Libanês em São Paulo. Um AVC isquêmico sofrido em dezembro foi o ponto de partida de uma deterioração que sua família confirmou ter sido a causa final de sua morte.
Sua trajetória foi a de um inquieto: técnico de som, crítico de teatro, roteirista, diretor de cinema — e, quando o cinema brasileiro encolheu nos anos 1990, jornalista. Foi nessa última forma que encontrou sua voz mais duradoura. Por quase uma década, assinou coluna semanal no O Tempo, sempre às terças, com a ironia cortante que marcou toda a sua obra.
Jabor via o Brasil como um teatro do grotesco, onde o absurdo não era exceção mas regra. Ao ingressar no O Tempo em 2007, explicou que preferia tratar a política ficcionalmente, não realisticamente — porque o país era, nas suas palavras, embaraçoso demais para ser analisado com seriedade excessiva. Chamava a si mesmo de 'multimídia maluco', sempre em busca do ângulo cômico que revelasse algo verdadeiro.
Sua influência foi grande o suficiente para gerar um fenômeno curioso: artigos falsos passaram a circular na internet sob seu nome, como se o próprio absurdo brasileiro precisasse de mais Jabor do que ele era capaz de produzir. Havia nisso uma ironia que ele certamente teria apreciado.
A Sempre Editora lamentou sua morte em nota, reconhecendo a contribuição decisiva de Jabor para o crescimento e a credibilidade do jornal. No momento de sua partida, nenhum arranjo fúnebre havia sido divulgado.
Arnaldo Jabor died in the early hours of Tuesday, February 15th, at eighty-one years old. The journalist, filmmaker, and writer had been hospitalized at Hospital Sírio Libanês in São Paulo since December 17th, after suffering an ischemic stroke. The complications from that stroke ultimately took his life, according to his family.
Jabor was a restless creative force across multiple disciplines. Early in his career, he worked as a sound technician, theater critic, screenwriter, and film director. When Brazilian cinema contracted in the 1990s, he pivoted toward journalism and found his true voice there—a voice that would define him for the rest of his life. For nearly a decade, he wrote a column for O Tempo, appearing every Tuesday on the opinion pages with the same ironic, sharp-edged wit that had animated his earlier work.
He understood Brazil as a kind of grotesque theater, a place where the absurd was not exception but rule. In an interview when he joined O Tempo in 2007, he explained his approach: politics, he said, was heaven for journalists precisely because it offered such rich material for the absurd. He preferred to approach his subjects fictionally rather than realistically, treating Brazilian life as a burlesque where irony and humor were not ornaments but the deepest tools of understanding. "You can't analyze Brazil too seriously," he said. "It's too embarrassing." He called himself a "crazy multimedia person," comfortable moving between forms, always reaching for the comic angle that revealed something true.
His work appeared in major Brazilian publications throughout his career. He was a chronicler of national life, someone who treated politics, culture, and the everyday contradictions of the country with equal parts affection and mockery. His columns became widely read, influential enough that the internet eventually began attributing false articles to him—pieces he had never written but that circulated under his name, some of them gaining considerable traction. There was a certain irony in that, given his whole project: the absurdity of Brazilian life was so powerful it could generate its own mythology, its own false texts.
The Sempre Editora, which published O Tempo, released a statement mourning his death. They acknowledged that Jabor had contributed substantially to the growth and credibility of the newspaper over his years as a columnist, and that his affection for the publication had been genuine. His absence, they noted, would be felt across Brazilian journalism.
No arrangements for a funeral or burial had been announced at the time of his death.
Citações Notáveis
Politics is heaven for journalists because it offers such rich material for the absurd. I prefer to approach my subjects fictionally rather than realistically.— Arnaldo Jabor, in an interview when joining O Tempo in 2007
Irony and humor are the deepest tools of understanding, not ornaments.— Arnaldo Jabor, on his approach to writing
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
What made Jabor's voice so distinctive in Brazilian journalism?
He refused to treat the country's politics and culture as something that demanded serious analysis. He saw it as theater—grotesque, absurd, almost comic. That gave him permission to be ironic without being cynical.
Why did he move from filmmaking to journalism?
Cinema dried up in Brazil in the nineties. But journalism gave him something film couldn't: a weekly platform to comment on what was happening right then, to catch the absurdity as it unfolded.
The false articles attributed to him—did that bother him?
He seemed to take it as part of the landscape. If Brazil generates its own mythology and false texts, why wouldn't his name generate them too? It was almost fitting.
What did he mean by saying irony and humor were tools of teaching?
He believed you could tell people hard truths about their country if you made them laugh first. Laughter opens a door that earnestness sometimes can't.
How long was he hospitalized before he died?
Nearly two months. From mid-December until mid-February. A long time to be still, for someone who spent his life in motion across different forms.