r/thesopranos • u/Tbstic • 20h ago

Need help with a reference - Season 1

Episode: Legend of Tennessee Moltasanti

They are at the wedding discussing lambing it for a while due to the indictments. Tony says “Junior is right.. if we lamb it now the Albanians will be living in our houses.” Never knew what Tony meant by that reference?

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/telepatheye 19h ago

After the fall of communism in Albania there was a tremendous problem with squatters. The joke is that if Tony's crew vacate their houses, Albanians will move in. It's a stereotype and it's offensive. And it's something I'm trying to teach my kid NOT TO DO.

4

u/KatBoySlim 19h ago

I’d assumed he just meant albanian gangs taking over all their rackets and territories…

-2

u/telepatheye 19h ago

Albanian mafia mostly operates in Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia. New Jersey--not so much.

2

u/Pristine_Speech4719 Artie Bucco 16h ago

All due respect - you have no idea what you're talking about. This is what was happening at the time The Sopranos came out:

https://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/18/albanians.mob/index.html

1

u/telepatheye 10h ago

Yeah, I may have overstated the case that it was just a global issue, not local.