>Former football player who flunked out of college
He’s probably a bit more intelligent than a lot of gangsters but makes emotional decisions and whines like a b***h all the time while also complaining about no Gary Coopers.
I thought he played Baseball? Junior even said "If you cared less about chasing tail you'd have been over 500" at one point.
https://i.imgur.com/hANLaF4.jpg
So was he a midwit or what? He makes spelling errors and says phrases wrong
I think Tony was shown to be smarter (not book smart, just potential to be more intelligent) in the earlier seasons but as Chase tried to tear the character down more he had him start writing shit wrong and being dumber. Mixing up phrases your therapist says once doesn't make you stupid.
Tony was high intelligence but like most sociopaths he was lazy. Still, this was enough for him to rise above the others who were mostly all straight up idiots. Tony also had the height advantage which seems to benefit most leaders, both giving them a confidence boost throughout life which snowballs and also makes others intimidated by your presence.
Only high IQ primary characters in the show's run were Tony, Ralphie, and Johnny.
I've met straight up illiterate people who could barely read their way through a sentence on a page who were clearly intelligent people capable of things very few others could pull off
Part of Tony's hell is that he's much smarter than the people around him, but not actually smart. He can't find a peer in someone like Paulie or Christopher, but he could never move in Melfi's or Cusamano's circles either.
I always thought his uncle June became a very good consigliere to him in the second half of the show's run. I know Silvio was Tony's official second but Junior gave Tony a lot of solid advice later on after he was under house arrest and given up on his personal ambition.
The episode with him socializing with Cuss's friends highlights your point.
They use him for laughts and some morbid curiosity but it's clear to Tony they are way ahead of him. They had big legitimate jobs, Enron type connections to win at the stock market (the birdfeeder whatever happened there...).
Tony is smart, but he didn't had what it takes to put some effort finish college and get there. He just took the easy way out, inherited his position from his father and build up from there.
>He just took the easy way out, inherited his position from his father and build up from there.
In Tony's defense, he had ambition and the whole "knocking over Feech's card game" move showed it. In fact, the more I think about it, it's rare Tony waves around his Dad to anyone really. Jackie Jr was a better example of someone trying to go the easy way and ride off their father's success.
>it's rare Tony waves around his Dad to anyone really
Because by the time we meet Tony, his Dad is dead and Tony is already in a leadership role. He had his life saved by his father, he was in his father's crew, he 100% did the muh fawtha thing
I think the coma shows Tony did have what it took to actually make something successful of himself, but his parents basically squandered his potential by being mentally ill lowlifes who couldn’t steer their kid in the right direction.
Basically this. You'll notice Tony also never sees himself being good at anything other than mafia shit when confronted about it. He's always "selling lawn furniture by the road" or something really low brow when he talks about being a civilian.
His grandparents were master stone masons, which educated or not, you need a brain in your head to do. He's smart enough to live like he does (wealthy even before he became an actual boss), whereas guys like Paulie or Pussy were basically middleclass schmuck gangsters.
Ralphie and Silvio were likely pretty smart too, and supposedly Tony B was (we get told this a lot but short of the massage license he acts like a fricking clown the majority of his screentime)
Ralphie was smart and ambitious/hard working.
He could have become an architect if he didn't had to drop out of high school to take care of his little brothers. Him being the greatest earner shows how smart Ralph was even with less formal education than Tony.
Basically this. You'll notice Tony also never sees himself being good at anything other than mafia shit when confronted about it. He's always "selling lawn furniture by the road" or something really low brow when he talks about being a civilian.
His grandparents were master stone masons, which educated or not, you need a brain in your head to do. He's smart enough to live like he does (wealthy even before he became an actual boss), whereas guys like Paulie or Pussy were basically middleclass schmuck gangsters.
Ralphie and Silvio were likely pretty smart too, and supposedly Tony B was (we get told this a lot but short of the massage license he acts like a fricking clown the majority of his screentime)
Tony B got a legitimate degree in prison and then passed a very difficult massage therapist test while working for a living. Tony couldn't get past one semester of college without any other responsabilities or a week of pretending to work at a job at Barone sanitation.
>Him being the greatest earner shows how smart Ralph was even with less formal education than Tony.
If Ralph was so smart he would have known better to hide it and his ambitious nature. Tony knew deep down he would have to kill Ralph eventually because Ralph was too smart and ambitious for them both to exist.
How smart can Ralphie really be when he thinks it's no big deal to murder a hooker right in front of his organization's favorite hangout and then leave her corpse out in the open for any random passerby to find?
>Former football player who flunked out of college
He’s probably a bit more intelligent than a lot of gangsters but makes emotional decisions and whines like a b***h all the time while also complaining about no Gary Coopers.
I thought he played Baseball? Junior even said "If you cared less about chasing tail you'd have been over 500" at one point.
I think Tony was shown to be smarter (not book smart, just potential to be more intelligent) in the earlier seasons but as Chase tried to tear the character down more he had him start writing shit wrong and being dumber. Mixing up phrases your therapist says once doesn't make you stupid.
It was baseball and football but football came to mind for me first.
Tony was high intelligence but like most sociopaths he was lazy. Still, this was enough for him to rise above the others who were mostly all straight up idiots. Tony also had the height advantage which seems to benefit most leaders, both giving them a confidence boost throughout life which snowballs and also makes others intimidated by your presence.
Only high IQ primary characters in the show's run were Tony, Ralphie, and Johnny.
I just watched the scene where melfi reads the letter he wrote he. Tons of improperly used words and spelling errors.
Zoomers dont know life before spell check where a simple paragraph would destroy your intellectual reputation.
I've met straight up illiterate people who could barely read their way through a sentence on a page who were clearly intelligent people capable of things very few others could pull off
No you haven't you lying moron.
Oh, and they would have easily beaten the shit out of you too.
nuh uh
Part of Tony's hell is that he's much smarter than the people around him, but not actually smart. He can't find a peer in someone like Paulie or Christopher, but he could never move in Melfi's or Cusamano's circles either.
Literally me
I always thought his uncle June became a very good consigliere to him in the second half of the show's run. I know Silvio was Tony's official second but Junior gave Tony a lot of solid advice later on after he was under house arrest and given up on his personal ambition.
The episode with him socializing with Cuss's friends highlights your point.
They use him for laughts and some morbid curiosity but it's clear to Tony they are way ahead of him. They had big legitimate jobs, Enron type connections to win at the stock market (the birdfeeder whatever happened there...).
Tony is smart, but he didn't had what it takes to put some effort finish college and get there. He just took the easy way out, inherited his position from his father and build up from there.
>He just took the easy way out, inherited his position from his father and build up from there.
In Tony's defense, he had ambition and the whole "knocking over Feech's card game" move showed it. In fact, the more I think about it, it's rare Tony waves around his Dad to anyone really. Jackie Jr was a better example of someone trying to go the easy way and ride off their father's success.
>it's rare Tony waves around his Dad to anyone really
Because by the time we meet Tony, his Dad is dead and Tony is already in a leadership role. He had his life saved by his father, he was in his father's crew, he 100% did the muh fawtha thing
I think the coma shows Tony did have what it took to actually make something successful of himself, but his parents basically squandered his potential by being mentally ill lowlifes who couldn’t steer their kid in the right direction.
Kevin Finnerty wasn't that successful of a man either.
Tony was intelligent but not educated. Ralphie was both.
Basically this. You'll notice Tony also never sees himself being good at anything other than mafia shit when confronted about it. He's always "selling lawn furniture by the road" or something really low brow when he talks about being a civilian.
His grandparents were master stone masons, which educated or not, you need a brain in your head to do. He's smart enough to live like he does (wealthy even before he became an actual boss), whereas guys like Paulie or Pussy were basically middleclass schmuck gangsters.
Ralphie and Silvio were likely pretty smart too, and supposedly Tony B was (we get told this a lot but short of the massage license he acts like a fricking clown the majority of his screentime)
how smart was georgie
Dumb motherfricker couldn't even work the telephone.
Ralphie was smart and ambitious/hard working.
He could have become an architect if he didn't had to drop out of high school to take care of his little brothers. Him being the greatest earner shows how smart Ralph was even with less formal education than Tony.
Tony B got a legitimate degree in prison and then passed a very difficult massage therapist test while working for a living. Tony couldn't get past one semester of college without any other responsabilities or a week of pretending to work at a job at Barone sanitation.
>Him being the greatest earner shows how smart Ralph was even with less formal education than Tony.
If Ralph was so smart he would have known better to hide it and his ambitious nature. Tony knew deep down he would have to kill Ralph eventually because Ralph was too smart and ambitious for them both to exist.
How smart can Ralphie really be when he thinks it's no big deal to murder a hooker right in front of his organization's favorite hangout and then leave her corpse out in the open for any random passerby to find?
He's a criminal so duh
>THAT'S THE REAL LOUIE VATOON
So in the end, who was Captain Teebs?
he owned luxury hotels
He had street smarts not book smarts
Smart enough to be dangerous