Venezuela’s president jokes about benefits of the ‘Maduro diet’, but nobody is laughing

Did you hear the one about the guy who lost weight due to nationwide food shortages but felt so invigorated from shedding the extra pounds that he was able to have great sex? That’s the gist of an unfortunate joke made by Venezuela’s president last weekend—and almost nobody is laughing. The incident occurred Sunday during a nationally televised speech when a smug President Nicolas Maduro asked one of his supporters in the audience why he looked so thin. The baffled supporter made some gestures with his arms, suggesting that he had been jogging a lot. But then someone in the audience said what everyone was thinking. She shouted that the man was on the “Maduro Diet,” a term that Venezuelans now use for forced weight loss due to the country’s food shortages. More…