(That being said, this is all complicated by the fact that Cuomo referred to himself as Fredo in a radio interview in 2010.)
The potential implications of the name Fredo aren’t good, as they highlight the disparity between the career accomplishments of Chris Cuomo and his brother, while also suggesting the possible perception of the former’s weakness. Cuomo is a cable news personality with his own show, Cuomo Prime Time, on CNN.
His brother, Andrew Cuomo, has been governor of New York since 2011. Chris Cuomo is one of three children of the late Mario Cuomo, who was governor of New York from 1983 to 1994. That Cuomo took umbrage at the name, though, is not all that surprising. One is a degrading slur meant to dehumanize the target the other is a metaphor with unflattering connotations: that the target bears a similarity to a character infamous for his lack of integrity.
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The former is a reference to a pop cultural character from books published in the 1960s and movie adaptations produced the following decade. (In a statement of support for Cuomo, CNN also characterized the name as an “ethnic slur.”) The latter term has a lengthy and well-trod history as a racist insult, an unambiguous pejorative against black people when used by non-black people. to The Godfather’s Fredo Corleoneīut Cuomo is being disingenuous at best when he says that Fredo is an insult that’s equivalent to the n-word. Why people are comparing Donald Trump Jr. It probably goes without saying that Fredo doesn’t last long after that. He later tells Michael he’s never met Ola, and then royally self-owns when he blurts out to someone else that he did meet Ola. In The Godfather: Part II, a frustrated Fredo tries to make a power play by colluding with Johnny Ola (a rival gangster) and winds up inadvertently giving him information that helps Ola’s plot to off Michael. Given that Michael is the youngest, and given Fredo’s insecurity, this creates a rift between the two brothers. In 1972’s The Godfather, Sonny takes over the family operation after an assassination attempt on his father, but he is eventually assassinated himself, after which Vito chooses Michael - not Fredo - to run the family. Fredo, the middle son, is the weak link, an insecure womanizer who tries to help out but keeps sticking his foot in his mouth. Sonny is the brash and bloody one Michael is the calculating war hero who tries to stay out of the family business but ends up running the operation.
In the movies, Vito (played by Marlon Brando) has three sons: Sonny (James Caan), Fredo (John Cazale), and Michael (Al Pacino). It’s like the n-word for us.” Then he threatens the man who apparently called him Fredo, saying he’ll “throw you down these stairs like a fucking punk.”Ĭuomo is right about one thing: Fredo is, indeed, a reference to The Godfather, or more specifically to Fredo Corleone, second son of mob don Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Godfather films. Pausing to ask if any of the onlookers are Italian, Cuomo adds, “It’s an insult to your fucking people. And they’re using it as an Italian aspersion.” “Punk-ass bitches from the right call me Fredo,” Cuomo says in the video, reportedly filmed on Shelter Island in New York and uploaded to right-wing YouTube channel “That’s the Point with Brandon.” (The video has since been deleted from YouTube, but remains on Twitter.) “My name is Chris Cuomo. CNN journalist Chris Cuomo was caught on video last weekend exploding at someone who apparently called him “Fredo” in rather colorful language.
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