Thursday, April 19, 2007

Phil Leotardo/Leonardo

This past Sunday, Frank Vincent's character, Phil Leotardo, on The Sopranos, offered us the funniest exchange from the series ever and from TV in general in some time.

Giving a speech to the children in his family, at what would have been his brother's birtday, he explains how his family's original name was Leonardo, but had been changed to Leotardo at Ellis Island.

paraphrasing:

"Why was that," a little girl asked him.

"Because they're jealous and stupid. That's why! Now we're named after a ballet costume."

One of the girls corrects him. "No, you have that confused with modern dance. In ballet they were a tutu."

Anyway, maybe you had to be there, but when I can track down a good transcript, I will post it here.

Rest assured that if you are not following this last mini-season, you are missing out.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"He was not only a painter; he did medical drawings and designed a tank for the Army. Leonardo was a great italian, and that was our name originally . But many years ago my Grandpa came over from Sicily they changed it on Ellis Island to "Leotardo".

Grandchild: What did they do that for?

PL: Because they're stupid thats why. And jealous, they disrespected a proud Italian heritage, and named us after a ballet costume. Marissa?

Marissa: That's for modern [dance], in ballet you wear Tutus

Other Grandchild: It doesn't make a difference

PL: That's right it doesn't