Italian Americans: A poll for you.

In My Humble Opinion
1

Admins, please note: While this thread is about The Sopranos, I feel it is more appropriate to get this poll posted at IMHO.

**Italian Americans: Are you offended by the Sopranos? ** Please offer input, too.

As an Italian American, I am not. It is a series about the ‘Mafia’. Therefor, it can be expected to show everyone is a ‘bad light’, more or less.

I watch very little television, but I make time for The Sopranos. It is a very realistic portrayal of the nickel and dime action that really is the mob. The Capos, the grunts, the cheating, mistrust, etc. It takes the polish off ‘the mob’.

As an Italian American, I am offended by shows that aren’t about a particular crime family and feature buffoons for the local Italian guy: Joey on Friends, George on Seinfeld, Tony on Taxi, Nick and Carla on Cheers, Big Ragu on Laverne and Shirley, the whole idiot family on Raymond, the Italian friend on King of Queens, and many others. These shows are just about life, yet the Italian guy has to play the womanizing idiot, or the basic idiot.

That is when I am offended.

I understand the fascination of The Sopranos: A weekly spotlight is cast on an interesting and muddy world of a crime family in North Jersey. It – The Mafia – has always intrigued people, and given the chance to follow the family for years, people gobble it up, as movies like Godfather, Casino and Goodfellas only temporarily stave off our interest.

I don’t understand why the shows I mentioned above don’t get the heavy and **deserved ** criticism from my Italian American friends and family.

2

I am not Italian-American but my wife is half and her father’s family is very Italian-American. They all love that type of humor and I don’t think they get offended by it at all.

I am 100% Southern and there is a huge amount of Southern humor, redneck humor and stuff of that sort out there. We don’t tend to get offended by it at all and are, in fact, one of the target audiences for it. If I got offended every time I saw a dumb Southern character on TV, I would have to expend a whole lot of needless energy.

I think the key is not thinking that they are talking about the whole group but the people in that group that really do meet the stereotype. I know plenty of Southern people that fit the most absurd characterizations almost perfectly just like I know Italian-Americans just like the ones that get made fun of on TV.

It is harder to get offended when you laugh at the absurdity in your own group as well and recognize that no one is making fun of everyone in that group, just the ones that fit a comedic stereotype.

3

I am Italian-American and from Jersey. Not Offended at all, I really enjoy the Sopranos. I am not offended by the shows you mentioned either, I think most sitcom Husbands are portray on the stupid or clueless side. Doesn’t matter if they are Italian-American, Hispanic, Wasp, African-American or anything else.
Besides I actually knew people like Tony Banta, a believably dumb NY-Italian character. Joey is offensive, only because he is not believable as a character, I never thought of him as Italian-American however.

By the way there is some Italian-American upper Mafia types in my town and one part of the Soprano’s portrayal is not correct. The Soprano’s show an amazing amount of taste in their Home, it appears many mobster still go for eccentric Stone Lions and over-the-top Christmas Decorations. I wish they would reflect this in one of the bosses one season.

Jim

4

I’m Italian-American, and I don’t get offended by this kind of stuff. What offends me is how fucking stupid a lot of shows on TV are. Regardless of race, TV shows have a large number of idiots. (Of course, so does reality! :D)

Doesn’t bother me.

I’ve only seen a few episodes of The Sopranos, but I love that parts of it reminds me of my crazy-ass relatives.

5

Ha! For once I am needed :: dances ::.

I am Italian, but I grew up here in California, far, far from my Italian family. That said, I’m not offended the least bit by most portrayals of Italians on TV (particularly the Sopranos). As I’ve mentioned in the past, John Gotti was (well, I guess he still is) my second uncle (mom’s uncle). Maybe I’m not offended by the Sopranos because I’m related to the “dark side” of Italian Americans and hear stories about it all the time? Who knows.

That said: I am mortified by my stupid (nay, STOOPID) cousins everytime I turn on A & E. :wally

6

Also not offended. The notion of an outlaw family is a nice romantic fiction. (I like to picture Robin Hood and Maid Marian living a life of white-collar crime with three kids and a dog in the ’burbs of Connecticut.)

The buffoonishness isn’t really a problem either. Italians (at least my family) are more prone to showing emotions (rage, affection, whatever) in public, which in an Anglo-Saxon society is all you need to be characterized as a buffoon.

7

I’m somewhat cheesed off by the TV stereotype that everybody Italian comes from NY or NJ and has shiny tacky clothes and a dese-dem-an-dose accent. (All my Italian relatives come from Connecticut, and they don’t look or talk like that.)

8

I wouldn’t include George Costanza, just because he’s based on Larry David and is only Italian because the network was concerned about the show being "too Jewish’ (according to Newsweek). But I have noticed that Italian characters are most likely to be characterized as stupid. They also invariably have New York or New Jersey accents.

I remember once I was with a friend of mine from The Bronx, sitting in the back of a police cruiser in Oklahoma City (long story). When we gave the officers our names, one of them asked Chuck if his name was Mexican. He said it was Italian, and the cop’s partner said, “Yeah, can’t you tell by the way he talks?”

By the way I’m obviously not Italian at all, but I grew up in a town that was redlined for Italians and Poles, and of course we settled on the Catholic side of the tracks.

9

Not offended.

It’s true, organized crime exists and some Italians are involved. Old news.

I think by now the average person realizes that not all Italians behave this way.

10

I forget which Italian comedian it was, but he said that Italians are more offended by The Olive Garden, then The Sopranos.

11

Out of curiosity, have you watched multiple episodes of the Sopranos? The notable thing about Tony’s warddrobe, anyway, is how quiet and subdued it is. He always wears dark colors and/or earth tones. AFAICR, the only character who really went for the flashy, tacky clothes stereotype was Adriana, and my friend psycat90, who’s from NJ, assures me that there really are women there who dress like that.

[/hijack]

12

One of my cousins dressed like Adriana, right down to those stupid extra long, over polished fingernails. Then she had 2 kids and stopped.

Jim

13

I’m sort of Italian-American. My grandfather was Sicilian, but he died well before I was born. Furthermore, he married a non-Italian and tried to raise his children “American”. So, my Italian-American-ness is not the most solid thing in the world.

I’m not generally offended by Italian American stereotypes on TV and in Film, but I do find myself mildly annoyed at times.

An Italian (from Italy) friend of mine who has spent a fair amount of time in the US said she didn’t like most Italians you see on TV here. She didn’t like the mafiosi or the stereotype of the Italian Mamma.

14

I’m not biologically Italian, but I was adopted as a neonate by a man of Sicilian descent and his Anglo-German-descended wife (hi mom and dad!), and spent my childhood around our huge (and ever-growing) extended family, who are for the most part Italian as well (as would be expected when one’s parents are Italian). So I identify pretty strongly with Italian culture.

I’ve never seen an episode of the Sopranos, but from what I know of it, no, it’s not offensive, but it is mildly annoying. However, Italians have been so well-integrated by now into American society that I doubt most people are going to have trouble distinguishing the stereotype from reality.

Yep, and canned spaghetti sauce, too. Sugo is supposed to be orange, thin, and sweet, dammit, not thick, red, and chunky!

15

Better than mine. I have an Italian last name, by birth, but my Italian grandfather adopted my dad.

All the same, there seems to be a sort of strange familial pride about the Italian American association with the Mafia. My second cousin’s liquor store has been in continuous operation for 90 years. And my uncle regularly offers to have the legs broken of anyone who treats his neices poorly.

The Sopranos only adds to the reputation. And it can be a useful reputation.

16

Yeah, I’ll second that. My Italian relatives are well-educated, articulate New Englanders as well. It would be cool to see that version of the Italian-American experience reflected on TV sometimes.

Is George Costanza really supposed to be Italian at all? I know he’s Jewish, and while there are Italian Jews (e.g. Primo Levi) they’re few and far between. To the extent that I’d ever thought about it, I guess I thought George was just Sephardic Jewish.

17

I’m Italian-American.

Every group is subjected to stereotyping at some point…in my opinion, the “Mafia” stereotype isn’t particularly harmful compared to many others.

I don’t think a significant amount of people believe that Italian-Americans are people they should be frightened of, “because they’re probably in the mob.”

As opposed to, for example, the amount of people in this country who believe that people of Middle-Eastern descent are to be feared, “because they’re probably a terrorist.”

Or the amount of people who are prejudiced against Hispanics, “because they’re probably illegal immigrants.”

These are the real problematic stereotypes, the ones that I can get worked up and angry about.

18

I’m more worried about the stereotype of an Italians as right-wing lunatic judges on the US Supreme Court.

19

Well, we still have Rudy G. and Mario Cuomo to balance out the Politicals.
This might interest a few people. List of some Famous Italian-Americans

Jim

20

But the Olive Garden is just blasphemy.