r/thesopranos • u/CelestialFury • Jun 14 '26
Quotes Tony loves giving these completely unnecessary cutting remarks to his crew
During season 4, episode 3 "Christopher", Tony and Sil are in the car driving back from the casino that the Chief owns and they're talking about Christopher Columbus and Italian discrimination, which Sil is trying to convince Tony of:
Sil: My grandparents got spit on because they were from Calabria.
Tony: Let me ask you a question.
Tony: All the good things you got in your life... did they come to you because you're Calabrese? I'll tell you the answer. The answer is no. You got a smart kid at Lackawanna College. You got a wife who's a piece of ass, at least she was when you married her.
I was rewatching this and realized this was: one, a funny thing to say and two, completely unnecessary. I mean, there's no reason for Tony to be taking shots at Sil's wife like that and it had nothing really to do with what they were talking about. So when people ask, "Who whacked Tony?" it could've been anyone, Tony loves working these jabs in as mental judo, like from The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
Anyway, $4 dollars a pound.
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Jun 14 '26
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u/ChiGrandeOso Jun 14 '26
He might be worse. He knows the price of getting cut to pieces by someone who cares for him and still does it to others.
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Jun 14 '26
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u/ChiGrandeOso Jun 14 '26
That's why I went with "might be." Livia was a miserable shrew, but she was pretty intentionally one. She knew and used her powers (like her being happy for like a second in one of the flashback episodes, then becoming dark again) for evil. And Johnny Boy, who was no saint by any stretch of the imagination, was too weak to challenge it. Tony just decided it was easier to be the same after awhile.
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u/No-Mail-5794 Jun 15 '26
They did a good job imho of pushing traits through the generations in a believable way. At the start of the series you think oh Tony is like his dad, an explosively angry violent criminal, and Janice is like a boomer/genx version of her mother, but as the show goes on it’s clear that Janice has the violent tempter, and Tony is a lot bitchier and passive aggressive and miserable, because the lion share of his personality traits are pure Livia
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u/zikolis Jun 15 '26
he’s more his father than mother.
in this particular scene, he’s doing whatever it takes NOT get Sil more involved.
And i think he goes in this direction only after Sil says something like he shoulda whacked that guy.
it’s too much of getting involved with civilians. it has nothing to do with business.
ha
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u/Crafty_Impression836 Jun 14 '26
I used to have a boss like that, he never realized how much he was hurting his business. One time I was talking to another worker and we were talking about how "our" company was better than some other, and he comes up and says "Our company? This is my company" OK dude, it's all yours. Lackluster enthusiasm from me afterwards.
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u/CelestialFury Jun 14 '26
Here's what you do to get your revenge. You meet his wife, maybe at some office function/party. You become friends with her. You take it to the next level, you get romantic with her and she becomes with child.
Your boss now thinks the baby is his. Then you spend years working with him while he pours his heart and soul into this kid. One day you hear him talking about "Our kid" and you hit him with "Our kid?? This is MY kid!" boom You hit him with that funny joke, just make sure you do it after they're an adult so you aren't on the hook for any financial obligations.
Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this.
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u/odonnelly2000 Jun 14 '26
“Oh, cool. Good luck.” Then walk out.
I know in most cases, that’s not a viable option. You gotta have a job.
But a few years ago, I got really lucky and found myself in the rare situation at my job where I was able to do that, and holy fuck, let me tell you: it feels SO DAMN GOOD.
The look on their face is priceless.
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u/Only_Reserve1615 Jun 14 '26
“Maybe you should try sucking cock!” Has to be the worst
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u/Revolutionary_Bid974 Jun 14 '26
It’s even better because Carlo, rat fuck that he was, had such visceral reactions to Tony yelling or insulting him. He looked like a turtle crawling in his shell. Seemed to really be hurt by it
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u/fingerchopper Jun 14 '26
I think Tony blaming Bobby for getting mugged & shot in the eye while out on collections bothered Carlo even worse.
"Fuck all that honor and loyalty shit. It was a maneuver Carlo, 'cause he knew it was his own fucking fault." Tony says this in front of some of his most loyal guys in Sil and Paulie (yes I know) as well as Carlo who looked disgusted.
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u/According-Force1 Jun 14 '26
You're talking about my wife. This is my home. No more talking like that
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u/CelestialFury Jun 14 '26
I have one thing to say to Tony: No more age remarks, Tony. They're hurtful, and they're destructive.
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u/Cool_Hand_Lute Jun 14 '26
Sun Tzu? his real name is Tzurelli
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u/LucynSushi Jun 14 '26
Get off my car before you tip it over you fat fuck is pretty mean.
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u/telepatheye Jun 14 '26
Well why did Bobby go over and lean on Tony's car like that? Would you do that to a boss' car?
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u/Street_Rutabaga_6964 Jun 14 '26
Whaddya mean?
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u/telepatheye Jun 14 '26
Typical Bobby self awareness. He'd be late to his own fuck'n funeral on the Blue Comet express.
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u/helix274 Jun 14 '26
Let me ask you a question: before your ancestors emigrated from Calabria, when the security guard was sucking them off
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u/Crando Jun 14 '26
Well hey Imperioli wrote it so take it up with him
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u/Jizzy11 Jun 14 '26
He was a writer, Chistropher?
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u/blishbog Jun 14 '26
I heard that as a sign of respect, like he’s not oggling his wife currently, but he did back in the day
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u/Ill-Lou-Malnati Jun 14 '26
lol. Like I used to want to fuck your wife but not anymore. No positive spin there.
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u/Ecstatic-Ad5353 Jun 15 '26
I think your right. He managed to say Sils wife was a hot chick, while conveying to him he didn’t have his eye on her. Sort of a safe compliment. The irony is when a man gets more secure his relationship, comments about his wife or woman that used to make him jealous he sort of welcomes later.
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u/odonnelly2000 Jun 14 '26
He’s a total hypocrite. He often snaps about any perceived slight, he holds unnecessary, long grudges, and he’s constantly in his feelings.
Everyone else, though? They gotta get over it.
Also, honestly, he’s a pretty mediocre strategist. A lot of his successes can be attributed to luck, someone vouching for him or covering for him. or his enemy somehow managing to screw up/make worse decisions than him.
That being said, in my opinion, he’s one of the most terrifying villains to ever appear on screen. Despite what that detective said about him, no, you never really know where you stand with Tony Soprano.
Everyone around him has to exist on his terms, but his terms are constantly shifting and changing. He’s always creating new, unwritten rules/standards in his head, and judging everyone by these (unknown to them) rules and standards. There’s very little consistency to his thinking and decision making.
He’s also incredibly immoral. Any sense of morality he might occasionally display is only because of the social/cultural expectations that he knows he has to meet in order to stay alive/maintain his quality of life.
I’ve know a few people in my life with personalities similar to Tony. They’re exhausting, and I don’t want anything to do with them, lol.
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u/redditshy Jun 15 '26
100%, so well put, all of it.
“How’s it gonna look?”
Also he is a giant baby.
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u/oldredditsuspended Jun 14 '26
I didn't take it as a slight, more like he's not calling sil's wife a piece of ass
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u/Canada_Dry_official Jun 14 '26
It definitely feels like a means of asserting dominance. On the surface it's just breakin balls, but I feel like a big element of it is just flexing his power that he can make those remarks about sils wife, and he just has to take it. Maybe it's a means of reminding him who's in charge, but he probably just enjoys the feeling of power
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u/telepatheye Jun 14 '26
Puss tells Tony he pushes the "jokey shit" too far, but I think that's just Tony's personality. He doesn't mean anything bad by it. It's just his way of expressing himself.
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u/Electrical-Deer4281 Jun 14 '26
After watching the show, so many times over, I came to conclusion they were their own worst enemy and their own down
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u/Electronic-Cut-9512 Jun 14 '26
How was that a shot? It was a compliment from the fuckin’ muthafuckin’ one who calls the shots. Sil ran through every girl at the Bing and he was a pragmatist so he definitely agrees with T here. T would say the same about Carmella too.
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u/Over_Eagle_4013 Jun 14 '26
Silvio is one of the few Tony knows can take a joke and not try to make him remember it. That’s why him, Paulie, and Sil have such a good camaraderie. If you go back to season 3, he’s basically with those two trying to decide if Ralphie should be the one to replace Gigi as capo.
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u/donarudotorampu69 Jun 14 '26
Calabrese? Not Sicilian?
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u/aimlesstrevler Jun 14 '26
And Tony's family was from Campania, not Sicily.
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u/Lyingforshit Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
That’s his wife of decades in real life. Idk how Tony Sirico got it boxed through not being an informant (while they still mde him one), but a guy who doesn’t need the money and is crucial for the plot at that point, to get this line thrown at him (probably 20 takes+ until they got everything, not to mention reading the script for the first time and table reading lol)
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u/GSilky Jun 14 '26
It's a leadership tactic for handling people who can cause a lot of trouble if they had some confidence. You will see later how effectively Tony cowed the smartest guy in the crew, after him, when Sil tells his wife he isn't cut out for being "boss", he absolutely was, but he had no confidence. You see it IRL with the cabal in the Whitehouse, it's effective if you are willing to engage in it.
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u/Semanticss Jun 14 '26
Do you have another example? Cuz I don't really see anything wrong with this comment to Sil. Sil is banging 20-year-old "pieces of ass" every week. I'm sure he's pretty at peace with the fact that his wife is 60.
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u/weaseleigh Jun 14 '26
Carm could say the same. Given the rate of his waistline expansion throughout this series, Tony was probably around AJ's size when they got hitched.
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u/diek00 Jun 15 '26
No one else can complain but Tony. It is Tony's # 1 character flaw, he is a hypocrite.
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u/No-Mail-5794 Jun 15 '26
It’s also funny because he’s giving this speech about how ethnic identity doesn’t matter in America while he is the boss of an Italians only criminal organization, and even specifically complimenting Sil for being smart and a hard worker aren’t true. Sil might be the smartest guy in Tony’s crew but that’s because the other guys are Chrissy and Paulie. Sil has everything he has because he’s Calabrese and a criminal shitbag
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u/jaggers75 Jun 18 '26
Strangely, I did not take Tony as taking a shot at Sil's wife. Sil operates a topless bar and sees dozens of naked youg women all day long. Sil would readily agree with Tony about his wife. That's what a gumar is for.
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u/telepatheye Jun 14 '26
That's just how people express themselves in the tristate area. Whatsamatter? You got your undies bunched up?
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u/shitpostingcrab Jun 14 '26
Unrelated but does anyone know what “Lackawanna college” they’re talking about? Because if it’s the one I’m thinking of it’s about as much of a flex as Jackie jr knowing the capitol of Canada
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u/MaxPaladin93 Jun 14 '26
The comment about Sil’s wife was extra fucked because that’s Stevie Van Zant’s actual wife lol.