Doesnt Fredo mean Dumbass?

I always thought it was a reference to being a dumbass given the character in the Godfather

But it seems in 2019 its also racist

Or is it only racist if you say it to an Italian, or do they have to be specifically Sicilian?

 

It's racist against French.

 

Yep. That's Fredogate.

 

Chris Cuomo... what a horrendous douche.

 

Why do celebrities allow themselves to get so butt-hurt over verbal insults like this?

By reacting this way. Chris Cuomo has become a meme

 

At this point, more people have seen his Fredo video than have seen his show

 

well i'm innocent of having seen either one.
"fredo" sounds like an univited familiarization of "fred", like "johnny" of "john".

sound very much cringe, without having to be about race or national 'origin' to do so.

 

Kettle. Afro american.

 

I dunno, I'm surprised more public figures dont have Britney-circa-07-meltdowns more often honestly. I would get so incredibly tired of people approaching me all day, particularly in an antagonistic way

 

None of the Italians I know consider it racist, just like the Irish aren’t offended at being called Micks or Hispanics at being called beaners.

If he called him a guinea, wop, or dego it’d be a different story, but calling him Fredo is just a minor insult.

 

am i the only one who never heard the word fredo before this thread?

 

It's from the film The Godfather. The protagonist's (am I spelling that right?) Brother was named Fredo.

 

Yes and no. I got the reference. Just never cared for the source material the reference came from. Saw it once, went, "meh" and moved on with the rest of my life.

Can we meet in the middle?

 

i did figure that our from watching VG's video in post 3, but i've never seen the godfather and never heard anyone say that before. even from the video, before everyone started saying it was racist it sounded to me like an insult that meant "the crappy brother."

 

never seen the godfater either .. only the cover.. zero interest in that stuff.

 

It's a fascinating story actually. Mario Puzo went to great lengths to ensure an accurate portrayal of the growth and demise of mafia figures. While most modern mob movies push the "it was only business" angle, The Godfather had no problem explaining just how often the personal side of the equation became deadly. All in the name of family and honor.

Fredo's story is rather unfortunate. As a baby he had pneumonia. In a scene portrayed as turn of the century New York, a midwife used some kind of flaming concoction and an inverted glass to treat Fredo's condition. His father, Vito Corleone who came to America from Sicily, stood by helplessly because he was too poor to afford a proper doctor. As Fredo survived and grew older, it was obvious he was slow and passive. His brother, Santino was clever, cunning and confrontational by comparison. Fredo's youngest brother, Michael, was just plain smart and grew to be utterly ruthless.

Being the older brother, Fredo expected to one day rule the family as was common during that time. At one point he saw Santino as the reason he wasn't advancing and let himself get conned by his sister's husband into setting Santino up so he could be murdered. Santino had previously beaten the brother in law horribly in the street after discovering that he had been beating his wife, Santino's sister. Somehow Fredo's involvement went unnoticed for years until it happened again with a failed attempt on Michael's life at his family home. Fredo managed again to remain in the shadows until he ran his mouth carelessly in front of Michael at an event in Cuba.

Michael gave him the kiss of death on a dance floor and told him what he knew. Fredo took off just as the Cuban government was abdicating in the face of Castro's revolution causing a flotilla of yachts, fishing boats and even canoes to head for Florida. Michael gave strict orders that nothing was to happen to Fredo, until their mother died (their father, Don Vito Corleone died of a heart attack years earlier chasing a grandchild around a tomato garden).

Fredo finally caught a bullet in the back of the head while fishing with a family bodyguard/enforcer.

Three films were made to tell the family's story. None of them had a happy ending. The last one portrayed Michael going into a diabetic stroke that was very well scripted and played. The family was just as helpless as Vito was when Fredo was sick so many years before. I won't give away the ending, it's something you should see for yourself. It's like 9 hours of film, but absolutely superbly done.

 

Cuomo trying to pass this off as "racist" is really really weird. But then, he's a far left hack, so I'd expect no less from him.

 

I’m sure that used to happen a lot more often before we all had cameras on our phones to record their dickish reactions to normies trying to bug them. Now they’re more aware that one picture of them can go viral.

I used to live in the same apartment building as Fred Armisen and he’d always wear a hat and sunglasses to hide his appearance every time he left.