Hillary Clinton Spoofs Sopranos Finale

The final episode of The Sopranos may have left some fans hungry for definitive resolution, but what David Chase denied, YouTubers have supplied in spades. Hundreds of response videos have popped up over the last two weeks — spoofs, alternate endings, detailed deconstructions — most set to Journey, some establishing links to familiar figures from parallel fictional worlds. In light of the series’ controversial conclusion, this wave of fan activity was inevitable. But who knew Hillary Clinton was a Sopranos fan?

The presidential candidate has been using her YouTube channel to fuel the effort to have voters pick her campaign song. Tuesday morning, the winning track was announced on Clinton’s website, alongside a surprisingly not-cringeworthy clip spoofing the much-debated finale scene of the Sopranos finale.

As of this writing, the clip is not yet available on Clinton’s official YouTube channel, but has been uploaded to the site by several other users.

Clinton obviously has a larger budget than most YouTubers; she also has access to the most charismatic 61-year-old man alive. But most impressively, her clip shows a fan’s eye for detail. Whoever directed this thing not only has a fondness for the source of the spoof, but they also understand that aligning Hillary Clinton with a murderous criminal, however fictional, is potentially asking for trouble.

So each key, ambiguous image from the original sequence is spun into a simple, pro-Hillary visual statement. Whereas Tony Soprano ordered his family onion rings, Hillary orders Bill a basket of carrot sticks, because she’s “looking out” for him. Two black men enter the diner, but where they were swaggering, potential thugs on The Sopranos, they’re genial members of Hillary’s community. And when a hulkish figure at the counter approaches the Clintons on his way to the bathroom, he and Hillary lock eyes, not in apprehension, but in recognition–Hillary then looks back at Bill as if to say, “Wasn’t that that guy from the show about the gangsters?” The intended takeaways: She’s capable, populist, and hip enough to recognize Johnny Sac when she sees him.

I would never describe myself as a fan of Hillary Clinton, but I admit that I LOLed three or four times watching this clip. I still wouldn’t vote for Mrs. Clinton, but I might subscribe to her YouTube channel.