When Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was released in 1999, the renowned film critic Roger Ebert wrote, “It’s the kind of picture those View n’ Brew theaters were made for, as long as you don’t view.” When the sequel Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo came out in 2005, Ebert was harsher still, describing it as “aggressively bad, as if it wants to cause suffering to the audience.”

Playing the title role of a tropical fish tank-cleaner-turned-gigolo was Rob Schneider. For the sequel, Schneider won the Golden Raspberry Award for “Worst Actor”, and in 2010, he was nominated for “Worst Actor of the Decade”.

Some 15 years later, Schneider might have been expected to resurface in an even worse third instalment of the Bigalow franchise, or in another lowbrow Hollywood comedy. Instead, he appeared in a far more unlikely setting: a campaign video endorsing Hungary’s far-right Prime Minister, Viktor Orban.

Schneider’s entry into local politics may have surprised Hungarian fans of Deuce Bigalow, but it did not come out of nowhere.

Over the past few years, Schneider has worked to establish himself as a leading conservative voice, railing against Hollywood’s supposed liberal bias. A frequent guest on Fox News, he has spoken publicly against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and is vocally anti-trans and anti-vaccine. In a recent opinion piece, he claimed, “Since the rise of the ‘woke’ movement, and its total domination of the creative industries, anyone with a conservative point of view has been punished and even blacklisted.”

The video also includes endorsements from other right-wing figures, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Jean-Marie Le Pen of France’s National Rally, Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Lega leader Matteo Salvini, and German parliamentarian and Alternative for Germany leader Alice Weidel.

Why would this global cohort of far-right figures care about the political future of Hungary? The answer lies in the central role Hungary has played as an incubator for the global rise of the far right.

I saw the rise of the far right in the central European country unfold firsthand. Within a week of........

© Al Jazeera