Artificial intelligence (AI) and a longstanding homophobic taboo from Brazil collided this week with a wildly popular meme about the number “24.”

Apparently, the number 24 is considered “gay” in Brazil.

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Millions have viewed the post from the account Images AI Could Never Recreate on X, which shows a pic of a candle package from Brazil containing the number 23, plus the number 1.

The caption reads: “The number 24 is considered ‘gay’ in Brazil, so straight men will have candles like this for their 24th birthdays…”

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First question in the replies: “Why is 24 gay?”

Research says it’s for a couple of reasons.

One goes back to the turn of the last century in Brazil, when the founder of the National Zoo, Baron Joao Batista Viana Drummond, had an idea for fundraising at the zoological garden: a lottery called “o jogo do bicho,” or “the animal game.”

Visitors to the zoo in Rio de Janeiro got one of 25 different animal figurines on entering, with a cash prize awarded to everyone handed that day’s randomly selected “winning” animal.

The game took off, and imitators turned it into a nationwide “bingo”-style craze. “Jogo do Bicho,” or “The Animal Game,” became so popular that it was banned as a gambling hazard. That only added to its allure, and the game became a national pastime sponsored by the mafia. “Jogo do Bicho” is still wildly popular today.

On that bingo-styled card, the animal in the number 24 spot is a deer, or “veado”, which has a reputation in Brazil as feminine or “gay”; “veado” is a gay slur in Portuguese on par with “fa**ot” in English.

As well, the number “24” in Portuguese translates to “vinte e quatro,” which, according to internet sleuths familiar with the language in use, can be misheard as “vim de quatro.” That phrase translates to “I came on all fours.”

“The punchline is pornography,” said one commenter on the meme.

“This is gayer than gay sex,” said another.

Bernardo Gonzales, a player for a trans Sao Paulo futsal team (a five-man version of soccer) said some men will avoid the number 24 when they pick a seat at the movies or rent an apartment, or — bring on the meme — turn 24 years old.

The same goes for football jerseys, he said.

“Footballers would rather use another number, because they don’t want anyone questioning their masculinity,” Gonzales told AFP.

But for gay and some straight footballers in Brazil, the number 24 has become a symbol of resistance and enlightenment. The number is popular in gay football leagues, and a form of protest over homophobia in the country.

In 2020, a Columbian midfielder, Victor Cantillo, joined a Sao Paulo club and kept his 24, earning a public repudiation from the team’s director.

“Not 24, not here,” said Corinthians’ team director Duilio Monteiro Alves.

That comment triggered widespread backlash, and compelled multiple football stars to wear the number in a clapback for equality, including one of Brazil’s biggest football stars, Flamengo striker Gabriel Barbosa, better known as Gabigol.

He turned 24 that same year.

“It’s a symbol of resistance,” said Bernardo Gonzales, an LGBTQ+ activist and player for the trans men’s futsal team Sport Club T Mosqueteiros in Sao Paulo.

His jersey number? 24.

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