We all claim that our lives are too hectic, and that there’s not enough time in the day for us to even consider starting those iconic TV series we’re all told we should watch before we die. Well, surprise bitch! You’re stuck inside with nowhere to go, and if you’re anything like the rest of us, you’ve finally managed to kickstart your daily marathon of episodes of The Sopranos, widely considered one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
Across six seasons and 86 episodes, the American drama follows the titular Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini, as he balanced family life with his role as the head of New Jersey’s most prolific mob. It won multiple Emmys and Golden Globes, and is rightfully enshrined in American cultural history as a must see. But if you’ve just started out and are finding the lingo a bit confusing, fear not! The show’s distributor HBO have released a video that unpacks all the phrases you’re casually nodding along to, pretending to understand.
Like the often uttered phrase ‘gabagool’ — a cut of cold pork like ham or salami. Or ‘stupid-a-fucking-game’, the colloquial term for a round of golf. There’s also ‘Goomah’, the word used as a synonym for someone’s mistress, and, in case you really misunderstood, ‘Oh!’, a “remark of exasperation, often conveying surprise, incredulity or registered offence”.
It’s a nice precursor to the upcoming (if sadly delayed) prequel movie to the series, The Many Saints of Newark, which is due to drop in Spring 2021. In it, James Galdolfini’s son Michael will assume the role of his father’s character’s younger self.
If you’re going to be watching that, or spending 86 hours of your life inside the world of The Sopranos, you best know what everybody’s talking about. So click play below and get up to speed, whether you’re already in the thick of it, just about to start, or have spent years wondering what the fuck ‘Stugot’ really meant.