I mean, come on, he goes on to play Marty, one of the biggest wops of all time, and he thinks he can get away with calling Maggio a wop? Puh-leez!
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
That's funny.
shareI can't help thinking that, since Borgnine was of Italian descent, so, too, was his "Fatso" character; so, what's an Italian (Borgnine) doing, calling another Italian (Sinatra) a "wop?" I think I might have an answer.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the derogatory term "wop" refers more specifically to Italians from Sicily than it does to Italians from mainland Italy; whereas the slur word *beep* usually applies to Italian mainlanders.
With these in mind, it is also noteworthy that there's a certain amount of disharmony, if not antagonism or even downright enmity between Italians and Sicilians. Thus, "Fatso," if the assumption I've made of his ethnicity is correct, is an Italian American who looks down on, and bullies, Italians of Sicillian decent (and the other assumption is that the Sinatra character is Sicillian.)
Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!
Is the bleeped out word IMDb won't print, is it d@go or gu!nea? Just curious.
I never heard of any distinguishing between wop, *beep* or gu!nea as to who they applied to or that there was internal distinguishing between different Italians.
Do you have any proof of this kind of disharmony? I could just go ask my buddy, see what he says.
If so, then good theory. I don't quite buy it, but it is a good theory. To me, and to a lot of people, Borgnine, like Sinatra, but also like DeNiro, Pacino, are quintessential, archetypal Italians. Yes, I know it's called acting; I know you can play outside of your type. But it would be sort of like Melanie Griffith playing a Hasidic Jew. Oh, yeah, she did that in A Stranger Among Us, and it was ridiculous. She's a shiksa goddess, not a Jewess.
I am being slightly tongue-in-cheek in all of this, but I don't think "Fatso" Judson is anything other than just some kind of WASP. I don't think he's supposed to be Judsoni or Judsino or anything. I don't think he's a fellow Italian denigrating another Italian.
I want the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
Yeah, I thought about the WASP-y surname AFTER posting comment (natch!); but, hey, while we're having such fun, let's just pretend that Fatso's pop died when when he was a baby and his mom later married a guy of British descent, who then legally adopted his stepson. ;-)
As for Melanie Griffith, I believe her character in THE STRANGER AMONG US was a convert to Hassidic Judaism, but wasn't ethnically Jewish.
Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!
Oh, crap, just ignore me! The 'convert' was another woman in the story, not Griffith. I've had a very long day, sorry.
Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!
In his autobiography, "Ernie," the late, great Ernest Borgnine wrote that while making the film, "Marty," some guys wanted to actually fight him because Mr. Borgnine "beat up" and later "murdered" Frank Sinatra in "From Here To Eternity." Talk about possible Mensa candidates!!!
shareHis character was called Judson - not an Italian name
share