Every day you decide to log on to social media is another day you decide to return to the front lines of online battle, also known as discourse. Should childless adults watch Bluey? Can people be normal about Sydney Sweeney? Who is Mr. Beast? Pick a side or log off. Of all the commentators logging hours and upsetting people, no one does it with as much style and humor as the person behind the Socialist Sopranos Memes account, @gabagoolmarx.
John Palmucci is a New Jersey native and self-identified “Italian Guy,” which he insists is not a bit, who has been wading into Facebook and Twitter fights as Socialist Sopranos Memes for more than five years, armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of HBO’s The Sopranos, left-wing views, a righteous frustration with political and social discourse, and the heart of a poster. He uses the most popular Sopranos memes — Tony realizing he hates A.J., Christopher explaining trending topics, Carmela throwing orange juice at Tony — to comment on our daily cultural oddities, political ineptitude, and government’s lack of decency.
What makes an SSM post so satisfying is its blend of gallows humor and a distinct voice aimed at the perfect target. Every time Vice-President Kamala Harris puts her foot in her mouth or the right wing clutches their pearls can be met with a succinct wisecrack that hits as hard as an elbow to the face. Despite (or because of) how niche the overlap of The Sopranos, leftist politics, and shitposting is, SSM has gained nearly 100,000 followers and wandered into too many online fights to count, including one with media reporter Taylor Lorenz breathlessly covered by the New York Post. With The Sopranos back in the cultural conversation and a presidential election looming, @gabagoolmarx remains one of the most unique voices on the internet.
Could The Sopranos get made today?
I guess it could. I just don’t think networks are really putting out anything that’s at that level of quality. So in that sense, it couldn’t. Not because “society’s too woke” or whatever — I don’t buy that — but because networks aren’t really committed to delivering a level of quality that existed on television 20-some-odd years ago.
Is Tony Soprano alive?
That’s always been my opinion. I get a lot of shit about this. From people online, but from all my friends, too. They all think I’m crazy. I think he was not shot and killed in that diner. I don’t think that’s the point of that final scene.
What is the point of that final scene?
Putting you into [Tony Soprano’s] frame of mind. That’s all we really need. What do we get out of seeing him go on trial and go to jail? What do we get out of seeing him get shot in the head? We don’t need that. I acknowledge the plausibility that he could be dead, but that’s just not really the point of that.
Tell me about the origins of Socialist Sopranos Memes.
I started on Facebook. It was late in 2018. I was doing a Sopranos rewatch and I was making some memes that had nothing to do with The Sopranos. So I’m rewatching the show and I said to one of my buddies, “What if I kind of mix these two things together? That sounds crazy, right?” That’s where it started. I’ve been doing this for a little over five years now.
Have you always had socialist views?
Back when I was a teenager, I was into political punk — Dead Kennedys, Choking Victim, Crass, stuff like that. Then I went to college. I probably shifted to the right a little bit. I was like, Maybe I’m more of a libertarian? I had one of those silly little journeys. Then the whole Bernie thing happened in 2016. Like a lot of people, Bernie brought me back in — and then there were the disappointments with all that. After Bernie 2016, I joined a small socialist organization, and I’m still a member today.
What’s more annoying: when people don’t get a joke because they don’t understand socialism or when someone gets upset because they clearly don’t know The Sopranos that well?
It’s definitely the people who don’t understand The Sopranos. I put something out mocking the whole, “Oh, they can never make this today in today’s woke society.” I’m clearly making fun of the people who earnestly say that, and some guy says, “That’s why we need Trump, and we need to make America great again.” The whole premise of the show is the good old days weren’t actually all that good. The whole idea is you can’t make it great again because it wasn’t great to begin with.
I can understand why someone might not understand a social political economic philosophy, but if you’re going to claim to be a huge fan of The Sopranos, have some kind of idea that it goes a little bit beyond the gangsters in New Jersey with guns. It’s obviously deeper than that.
It’s not unusual for you to upset people online. I find it very funny to see people argue with a screenshot of Michael Imperioli.
Maybe it’s good for them to have a faceless meme account to get mad at. There was a time in my life where I was the guy at the dinner table that would cause political arguments. I’m an Italian guy from New Jersey with left-wing views, and not a lot of the people around me have those. How I view it now is, amongst my family and my friends, I’m not that guy anymore, because I put my views out there for me. Since I’m not going to argue with my family and my friends, I’ll do it with strangers. I just throw it out there, and if strangers want to get upset about it, that’s fine. Maybe it’s good for them too to not have a “real person” to get mad at.
If that outlet takes the form of a beloved HBO show, that helps make it less of a contentious form of expression.
I work late hours, odd hours, long hours. I need some kind of outlet. I could only rant so much to my wife about politics. She’ll listen, and a lot of times she agrees, but it’s good to just let it out there. I didn’t know it was going to even become that when I started with this. It was just a silly thing I was doing, showing my friends. At some point, it just became my release.
Has someone had criticism that you found to be valid or made you think deeper?
No, not really. It’s more about whatever’s going on in the world is probably what would change me in any way. I know it’s been going on for decades, but the last few months with Israel-Palestine, for example, seeing things … there was a time I didn’t make memes about stuff like that.
Circling back to my whole thing about how I use the account to say the things that I am kind of done arguing with my family and friends about, that was a big one for years. Israel and Palestine was something very contentious with a bunch of people in my life.
It’s funny that you have people yelling at you, “Why do you hate Taylor Lorenz?” Is that your biggest online fight?
Taylor Lorenz was probably the big one. That all stemmed from when I saw her saying something about how the striking Starbucks workers were not wearing masks on their picket line. Some of them were not wearing masks on the picket line outdoors on their picket line in early 2023. They’re just baristas and whatnot, trying to get a better wage, and you’re coming in and while her thing is all telling people they’re being insufficiently leftist. I’m a union worker for almost 11 years now. So, no, I’m not going to tolerate that. Then I saw she gave crap to someone about going to a restaurant or something, meeting with friends and stuff, so I made a meme about her just like, You know what? You’re a big public figure and you’re going around saying all this stuff. You can and should be able to handle criticism. I get criticized, my page gets criticized. I can handle that. She responded with the whole about how I joined the right-wing harassment campaign. Yeah, that was the big one.
I don’t know if you knew this, but this is the most important election of our lifetime.
I hear that one every four years.
How are you feeling going into this election?
I mean, not great. Four years ago, Trump lost and we were sold that Biden was going to be the second coming of FDR. By 2020, I was so cynical, and you could see that by whatever I was posting back then. Four years later, that’s just all compounded. I mean, sure, there’s a lot of potential to come up with memes on the election. But we’re kind of rehashing, though, because it’s the same two guys that ran four years ago and they’re just older. More older Biden jokes. Trump’s the harder one to make jokes about.
Why is that?
I’m a socialist, so obviously, I don’t like a billionaire business magnate. That’s obvious. So every time there’s an election, I get the stuff about, “You only go after Democrats.” I’m like, “No one ever confuses me for a Republican.” I get confused for a Democrat. Every time I make something mocking Democrats or Biden, that just reinforces that idea. I don’t even know if I’m going to vote. I don’t like any of these guys. Don’t even throw RFK at me, none of them. I live in New Jersey, what does it even matter here? [Laughs]
