The Pandemic Has Spawned an Unlikely Comedy Duo: Cuomo & Cuomo

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, which have become must-see TV for a lot of New Yorkers and turned the 62-year-old governor into an unlikely heartthrob, took an unexpected turn on Thursday.

After an update on the latest number of new infections in New York and announcing that the state was suspending elective surgery to free up needed ventilators, Cuomo welcomed to the briefing (virtually, of course), his younger brother, Chris, the host of CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, who had recently announced he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating in the basement of his Long Island home.

“Okay, your brother has it; how’s he doing?” Andrew said people have been asking him. With that, Chris appeared on a split screen, wearing a green hoodie and a black Cuomo Prime Time baseball cap.

After a little back and forth, which included a dig at the governor’s somewhat unruly mop—“You look like you’ve been cutting your own hair”—Chris briefly discussed his symptoms, which included fever and chills. And he described some of the vivid and bizarre dreams he’s been having since he got sick: “I was seeing Pop, you came to me in a dream...you had on a very interesting ballet outfit, and you were dancing in the dream, and you were waving a wand and saying, ‘I wish I could wave my wand and make this go away.’ Then you spun around and you danced away.”

“There’s a lot of metaphoric reality in that one. I thank you for sharing that with us,” Andrew dryly replied to Chris, barely containing his laughter as he added, “Obviously the fever has affected your mental capacity.”

It wasn’t the first time the two have jousted on air, in ways that have sometimes given insights into a sibling rivalry that clearly has gone on for decades.

An exchange in March between the Cuomos in which they argued over who their mother’s favorite was quickly went viral. Likewise, when the governor called into Chris’s show the evening after the younger Cuomo had received the positive results of his test, Chris told him that the night before he had made their mother’s “very coveted” meatball-and-sauce dish the night before—pointedly adding that he was the only one in the family she had passed the recipe down to. He then told Andrew that when he called their mother and said he was going to save some for his older brother, she started crying and had to hang up the phone. “You’ve always been good at manipulation,” the governor responded. “You’ve always been the meatball of the family.” (Earlier in the exchange, when Chis told Andrew he was self-quarantining in his basement, away from his wife, Cristina, and their family, the governor joked, “Well, you’ve spent a lot of time there, right? Cristina says she sends you there a lot.”)

Of course, there have been a few tender moments.

Andrew got unexpectedly emotional when he announced Chris had tested positive, calling him a “sweet, beautiful guy” and “my best friend.” And Cuomo did sign off their Cuomo Prime Time interview by saying to his brother, “I love you. I respect you. Stay safe. I’ll talk to you soon. I’ll send you some sauce. Mom’s secret.”

For many people, these exchanges have seemingly brought a touch of much-needed levity to a period of almost unimaginable fear and foreboding.

And as Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, a political commentator for CNN, tweeted on Thursday, “I know it’s quarantine and we’re all a little punchy. But I could watch the brotherly banter between the Cuomos all day.” (One of her followers responded: “They are the reality show we never knew we needed.”)

Not everyone is so amused, however.

Chris and Andrew Cuomo’s joking may help relieve stress for some, but it has also come under fire, with Mediate writing that Chris should stop interviewing Andrew “for the sake of journalistic integrity” and other speculating that the Cuomos’ show of brotherly solidarity is intended as a distraction from some of the governor’s less-popular political decisions.

But can you begrudge the Cuomos these moments of levity? One is in his basement, cut off from his family, wondering how sick he will get. The other has to hold a press briefing every day to announce to the public the rising death tolls in his state and warn that even more terrible days lie ahead. Is it any wonder they need a little comic relief?

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Originally Appeared on Vogue