In season 2 of
The Sopranos we meet two new, minor recurring characters, Matt Bevilacqua and Sean Gismonte. Or as I started calling them, Tweedle
dumb and Tweedle
dumber. They're young hotheads working for Christopher who are trying to curry favor to get into the Sopranos gang.
Matt and Sean are introduced in a scene in the season 2 opener where Christopher is overseeing a pump-and-dump stock scam. They're (fraudulent) stock brokers who they take it upon themselves to beat up a fellow stock broker who's not pumping the pump-and-dump scam hard enough.
It's apropos that Matt and Sean are working through Christopher to rise into the gang because they're like reflections of him. For one, they yearn for indications of status. Christopher wants to be a "made" man; Matt and Sean want recognition from Tony. Two, they're all rash. Christopher has made a number of poor choices that get him in hot water— both with the gang and with his girlfriend. Matt and Sean rough up the broker thinking it will get them ahead but really it just gets them in hot water. (That hapless broker, BTW, is played by Kevin Sussman, who you may recognize as comic shop owner Stuart in
The Big Bang Theory.)
Matt and Sean appear or are referenced a few more times during season 2. They act as busboys at a high-stakes poker game Tony runs. They're simultaneously glad for the opportunity to work in the same room as Tony and frustrated that's it's such menial work. Later, in the Bada Bing club, Tony ignores them. Feel used and unappreciated they decide they need to be much more aggressive to get ahead in the criminal gang. And that's when they
really earn the names Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber.
( Season 2 Eps. 8-9 spoilers )![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
