"C'erano due pagliacci alle elezioni."

Translation: There were two clowns at the elections.

[dsofer]

Beppe Grillo e Silvio Berlusconi, suppongo.

[Knoxienne]

Best "politics" sentence ever. ;)

[osarpas]

Pretty much sums it up

[Roan866446]

The word pagliaccio comes from paglia 'straw'. A word for 'puppet' is fantoccio, cf. un argomento fantoccio 'a straw-man argument'. A word for 'scarecrow' is lo spauracchio, which can be used metaphorically to mean 'bogeyman'. Lo spettro del fascismo è diventato uno spauracchio.

[Budd01]

What does "AT the elections" mean in this sentence. Does this mean the two clowns were candidates in the election? If yes, I think this is better expressed in English as "There were two clowns IN the election".

[LSadun]

Also, normal English usage would be "election", not "elections". Unless of course we're talking about multiple elections, each featuring a clown.

[PhillipStanley]

I was wondering the same thing, as well as the use of the plural “elections”.

[canigetapickle]

Trump and Biden

[JohanDupon]

Can they be morons instead of clowns or am I thinking about American politics?

[Lilibun1113]

Apparently being a moron is a requirement of being in American politics.

[Tallman69]

Loro non erano i pagliacci, erano i politici.

[Centrasota]

Le parole indicano lo stesso.

[KatPavi]

lo pensavo anch'io