Cala boca Galvao – Save the Birds Twitter campaign

What is Cala Boca Galvao?

If you came here looking for a short and accurate answer, here it is.

Short answer: “Cala boca Galvao” is a Portuguese phrase that translates to “Shut up, Galvao” in English, addressed to Brazilian sports commentator Galvão Bueno.

If you’re like me who became curious after seeing the phrase become extremely popular on Twitter and did some Google search, here’s my explanation.

Long answer: “Cala boca Galvao” became the top worldwide trending topic on Twitter with tremendous amounts of related tweets coming in every minute. Reading the tweets, I got confused with its real meaning. Some tweets mention Lady Gaga; others, that of a bird. I already know that it’s a foreign language but didn’t know that it was Portuguese. So I did some searching, and found a series of internet pranks directed at Galvao Bueno, a Brazilian football commentator.

Prank 1: that “Cala boca Galvao” is an endangered species of bird

This is probably what drove droves of people tweeting the phrase. It supposedly refers to a rare breed of bird in Brazil and to save it, you only need to make one tweet. “One second to tweet. One second to save a life.” Just watch this video and you’ll see.

Prank 2: that “Cala boca Galvao” is the new Lady Gaga song

Honestly speaking, this one is believable. The song makes use of GaGa-Galvao alliteration, which has a nice catchy tune to it. The song is entirely about the bird though. One plus factor for this prank is how people say that this and that artist will be in Lady Gaga’s Cala boca Galvao music video. Funny!

Lady Gaga’s Cala boca Galvao music video, song

I have some online Brazilian friends so I asked them. “Cala boca Galvao” is indeed popular in Brazil, and it pertains to Galvão Bueno. In light of the 2010 World Cup in which Galvao was a commentator, the phrase got extremely popular when some pranks telling him to shut up sprang up. When I asked my friends why people want the sports caster to shut up, they said that “he was annoying” and that he was “dumb.” I say “aouhiauehou.”

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