‘I find the detachment from reality fascinating’, says Raquel Real, who makes fun of coaches on the internet

In a video on Instagram, Raquel Real gives tips on how to profit from investments while receiving a salary of R$1,500. In another, wearing a jacket, she campaigns for deputy saying that she will defend the rights of a minority: billionaires.

The coaches that proliferate on the internet teaching how to “thrive” with phrases like “work while they sleep” are one of Raquel Real’s main sources of inspiration for creating her comedy sketches. “I find these people’s detachment from reality fascinating,” says the comedian, in an interview with F5.

“I think it’s really crazy for someone who is an heiress to say that only those who want to are poor are poor. I’ve already taken entire sentences, like copy and paste, and used them for my characters. The person really said that seriously”, he says, laughing, but in a tone of indignation.

When she graduated in radio and TV, the 33-year-old comedian from São Paulo didn’t expect to end up in front of the cameras. It was in one of her first jobs, as a producer at Snack, a network of YouTube channels, that she came into contact with videos from beauty influencers and turned them into material for her first parodies.

“It was the time of the YouTube boom. I produced several makeup blogger channels and I found it comical, I wanted to make fun of it”, he says. Behind the scenes, Raquel made her colleagues laugh, imitating the affected manner of the YouTubers. This is how the Raquel Real Oficial channel was born.

Today, she is also a scriptwriter for the comedy A Culpa É do Cabral (Comedy Central) and supplements her income by publishing on social media. “Influencing people is a consequence of my work, I’m against calling influencers a profession”, she warns.

One of Raquel’s best-known characters is inspired by a sketch by Rowan Atkinson, Mr. Bean. Every end of the month, Diaba appears on the timelines of thousands of users. With a horned tiara and red lipstick, she lists who deserved to go to hell that month: “Fan of a reality show participant, a dentist who performs rhinoplasty, a person who pays for purchases with pix and leaves others waiting in line, a person who uses a microphone lavalier as handheld microphone”. Advertisers are featured in almost all videos.

‘WANT MILK?’

With an ironic, mocking tone and full of political positioning, Raquel often uses humor as a way to vent her anger. “My best videos were about something that pissed me off, that was eating me up inside,” she says.

In one of these videos, she jokes about the sexual harassment she suffers online. “Messages I receive when it’s not Women’s Day”, says the title of the video, which features a compilation of phrases sent by unknown men such as: “Do you want milk?”, “Hey, let’s have sex?” and “Do you like evaluating dicks via direct?”. It’s at that level.

“There are so many crazy people in the world that I can only laugh. What am I going to say about straight men’s self-esteem? There are things I receive that are surreal,” she says. “Sometimes I think I live in a bubble, because when these people show up I’m still impressed.”

“Being a woman in Brazil in itself is unhealthy”, adds Raquel. “But I’m proud when I can express a feeling and at the same time make people laugh, bring lightness. Comedy saves us every day”, she says.

‘A GREAT GLOBO REPORTER’

In one of Raquel’s most famous videos, the character Regininha Lero Lero is a victim of Russian napping, the act of dozing off and waking up four hours later. The sketch is made in the style of a television news report, with an “expert” explaining the harm of the habit. The video was praised by Alexandre Nero. “My God, the business is far, far above average”, acclaimed the actor.

The coach character, always wearing her salmon jacket giving an interview to a ghost podcast, was inspired by Bettina, the young heiress who “taught” her followers how to become millionaires like her. “I follow a lot of coaches, I’m a big admirer of them as the source of my jokes”, says Raquel. “I find it fascinating, anthropological. My life is a big Globo Repórter.”