Andrew Cuomo's Pandemic Poster

Submission 5,262

Part of a series on COVID-19 Pandemic. [View Related Entries]

About

Andrew Cuomo's Pandemic Poster refers to a poster shared by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo meant to tout the state's handling of the coronavirus Pandemic. The poster depicts a mountain, meant to represent the state's curve of cases. It resembles a political cartoon, with many elements labeled to represent various stages of New York's response to the pandemic. It was widely mocked online, particularly for the art style and confusing elements, such as a section labeled "Boyfriend Cliff."

Origin

On July 13th, 2020, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo shared a poster at a daily briefing regarding the state's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.^[1] The poster depicts New York's coronavirus curve as a mountain, with multiple elements representing moments from the previous four months.

Spread

The poster began spreading on Twitter when user @NickReisman^[2] tweeted it, gaining over 5,200 retweets and 5,400 likes (shown below).

The poster quickly generated confusion and mockery on Twitter. User @iowahawkblog^[3] posted, "Literally the stupidest fucking thing I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of stupid fucking things," gaining over 480 retweets and 2,000 likes (shown below, left). User @amandamull^[4] joked, "simply obsessed with this deranged poster. A+, perfect, five stars, 10/10."

Others expressed bewilderment at elements of the poster, including the "Boyfriend Cliff," a reference which many didn't understand. "Boyfriend Cliff"^[5] trended on Twitter that day. User @SamanthaHearn^[6] joked, "The boyfriend cliff is the chapter of coronavirus where you have to break up due to social distancing making new relationships completely impractical, thus marking the final tipping point towards complete dystopian dissent. I know this from personal, professional experience," gaining over 90 retweets and 470 likes (shown below, left). @_cingraham^[7] joked about imagining Cuomo demanding his designer include "boyfriend cliff" (shown below, right). It is speculated the "boyfriend cliff" is a reference to a photo Cuomo shared during the pandemic showing him eating dinner with his daughters and one of the daughters' boyfriends.^[8]