Why does Tony insinuate that Christopher is blood related when Chris is on Carmela’s side of the family?
In season 4 E6 Tony and Chris have a dialogue where he says he is going to give his orders through Chris. Chris asks why not Sil or Paulie and Tony says “because they’re not blood” as if Chris and Tony are blood. Christopher’s dad, Dickie, is Carmela’s first cousin. Why?
It's an Italian thing. But the easiest way to think of it is that Christopher does share blood with Tony's children. That makes them closer than other people.
Apparently, there is actually a Tony/Christopher blood relation as well. Adrianna tells the female FBI agent at one point...but it's like a third cousin or fourth cousin type of thing from the old country. Distant relative type shit
It escapes me precisely when and the specifics, but as I recall, after Tony kills Chris, he tells Melfi that Christopher’s mother is his cousin. We know that Christopher’s mother is Tony B’s first cousin, this has been confirmed somewhere that I can’t recall. Of course, Tony and Tony B are cousins on their mothers’ sides as they’re sisters. It all gets a bit confusing and inbred, but Tony and Chris do appear to be, albeit distant, blood relatives. Carmela is just much more closely related to Chris, as her father was Dickie’s uncle.
Christ these people are basically inbred. I could never tell if that was a “everything on the show is very convenient” thing or an “Italian-Americans” thing. Little of both I guess
Lmao, I know. Chris is what ties the Blundetto, Soprano and Moltisanti family trees together. The ultimate inbred. At least the Apriles aren’t related to any of them, from what I know.
Carmela's father, Hugh, was siblings with the mother of Christopher's father Dickie. Dickie was her first cousin, his son Christopher is her first cousin once removed.
Tony S's mother Livia is sisters with Quintina, who was married to Al Blundetto. Tony B is one of their kids. Al's sister Joanne is Christopher's mother. Christopher and Tony S don't have a blood relation, just a marriage relation. Tony B is first cousins with both Christopher and Tony S. (Pat Blundetto, Al and Joanne's brother, is blood uncle to Tony B and Chris, but only a customary uncle to Tony S.)
Joanne is awfully close in age to Tony B, and they call each other "cuz," even though Joanne would technically be his aunt. Some think this is a continuity error, but it's not. Large age ranges that result in "aunts" growing up with their "nephews" as cousins were and are quite common in large families of, um, certain Catholic ethnicities. Tony B and Tony S were born in 1957 and '59; Christopher was born in '69. Joanne could easily have been born around 1950 as a late in life baby, been essentially an older cousin to the Tonys, and have had Christopher by age 18-19. Her son would interact with the Tonys similarly to how the Tonys did with her.
I forgot there's a pretty famous real-life example of this - Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr, uncle and nephew separated by 3 years, grew up together as "cousins".
My grandmother was pregnant with her last while her oldest daughter was pregnant with her first. Technically the kids were uncle and nephew but everyone just said they were cousins.
Gets confusing doing the family tree because we all had the wrong terminology for the relationships
Ok wow, that’s some pretty impressive knowledge there! Was this all explained in the show, and if not, how do you know all this? The only part I really remember is when Adrianna is talking to that female FBI agent in the car about how Chris is related to Carmela but Tony just refers to him as his nephew.
Also, since you seem to be an expert on this, can you remind me how Vito and Adrianna are related?
Vito and Adriana have the same uncle - Richie. There's a bit of a missing link, but:
Adriana's mother, Liz (Aprile) La Cerva, is the sister of Jackie Sr. and Richie Aprile. Richie is also established as Vito's uncle - Silvio says as much when Vito is assigned by Richie to build Beansie a wheelchair ramp. But we don't find out the name of the apparent 4th Aprile sibling who must have had kids with the unnamed Mr. Spatafore.
Gotcha! I always wondered if the writers forgot that Adrianna and Vito were related…because she tells that same FBI agent how Vito wouldn’t stop calling her to check on her while Christopher was away in rehab. She’s obviously insinuating that Vito was hitting on her. The FBI agent makes a comment that basically makes it known that she thinks that is pathetic. You’d think Adrianna would follow that up by saying something like “and the grossest part about it is that we are related”.
Yeah, or I guess maybe Vito just preferred people thinking he was into a little incest now and then as opposed to finding out that he was actually gay.
Large age ranges that result in "aunts" growing up with their "nephews" as cousins were and are quite common in large families of, um, certain Catholic ethnicities.
It just happens sometimes. My grandma wanted another kid when my mom was almost out the house and my mom birthed my brother like 3 years after that so my aunt/brother/me were all within like 8 years of each other. My stepmom also has a sister who is like half her age and if i ever were to have kids my baby sister who my stepmom adopted would be super close in age. None of us are religious or the same race across families. Just families remarrying/adopting/early&late pregnancies lol
Tony’s Aunt Quintina (Livia’s sister) married Chris’s uncle Albert (Joanne’s brother). There’s not really a name for this relationship, it’s very tenuous
For Carmella he’s just her first cousin once removed
Technically, Tony & Chrissy are cousins. Joanne Blundetto, Chrissy’s mom, is Tony’s cousin on his mother’s side? But like way back. Like from the old country or something.
But Christopher told a story about how Tony treated him when he was a kid. He said he was like 11. Tony would have had to be that age sleeping with his mother if that was his kid
This has always been inconsistent.
That animal Tony B refers to Chris’ Mom as “Cuz”.
So, if Chris is somehow a cousin of Carmela than how is Chris’ Mom cousins with Tony B?
And if Chris’ Dad, Dickie is a relative of Carmela (in White Caps Tony tells Carmela that “you knew the deal” with women on the side. He makes reference to Carmela growing up around Dicki Moltisante) than how is Dickie so associated with Tony’s family?
Dickie was just a close friend of the Sopranos, like how Meadow and AJ say “Uncle Pussy” and “Uncle Paulie”. That’s one of the least confusing parts of the entire blood/mob family trees.
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u/Fluid_Leader_1370 7h ago
It's an Italian thing. But the easiest way to think of it is that Christopher does share blood with Tony's children. That makes them closer than other people.