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Cuomo Promotes Tone-Deaf, Self-Aggrandizing Coronavirus Poster On Fallon
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 14, 2020
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jul 14, 2020
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For the first time in nearly four months, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon returned to 30 Rock to film a new episode on Monday. And among Fallon's first guests was Governor Andrew Cuomo, who told him, “New York is really open now that you’re doing your show again.” (Fallon, like other late night hosts, had been delivering his show from a second home outside of the city.)
Cuomo talked a bit about the city and state's fight with coronavirus and the great strides that have been made since the peak in April—and he also took this opportunity to flog his glib and self-adoring new poster depicting the “Coronavirus Mountain” (similar to the one he created for his NYC office) which New York has climbed, despite the pandemic not being over.
"For me, these posters allow a different form of expression," Cuomo said. "They're basically a relief for me, just to design it, make it visual, sketch it, make it graphic, what am I trying to say, what am I feeling. And that was the mountain that we went up, remember every day in those briefings the number of cases went up and up and up, you didn't know when it was going to stop...then we came down the other side and the cases were declining so slowly, and we finally got to the other end."
As with his press conference on Monday, in which he introduced the poster, Cuomo seemed to be taking a victory lap despite the ongoing dangers of the pandemic, and his own mistakes hesitating on shutting down the state and dealing with nursing homes.
"So many people helped, so much happened along the way, there was so much fear and pain and trauma," Cuomo said. "On the other hand, there was such goodness, the people in New York did the right thing. We had 30,000 people volunteer to come in from outside New York to volunteer in our hospitals."
The posters are now available to purchase for $14.50 from the NY state website. They note, "New York State does not profit from the sale of this poster. Posters are being sold at cost."
At the top of the show, Fallon went through all the safety precautions that have been put in place to ensure the show can broadcast from 30 Rockefeller Center without endangering anyone. “Everyone here in the studio has tested negative for COVID, and all of our crew are wearing masks and face shields, and we’re all six feet apart,” Fallon said.
He added that he hoped by hosting in the studio, he could show people “that there is a light at the end of the tunnel if we all do our part to keep each other safe.”
Tagged
posters
Governor Andrew Cuomo
andrew cuomo
jimmy fallon
the tonight show with jimmy fallon
television
tv
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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