The Armenian Mob has been taking over the tube lately with guest-starring-criminal roles on three of our favorite shows: in a trial of a Mob boss on TNT’s The Closer; in a money-train robbery on FX’s TheShield; and now in Showtime’s comedy Weeds they’re muscling in on the grow house of weed entrepreneur Nancy Botwin, a.k.a. Lacy LaPlante (Mary-Louise Parker). So why the suddenpopularity? “When Armenian mobsters have gunfights, their guns go‘bang-ian,’” jokes Weeds executive producer Jenji Kohan. “Butseriously, I live in a neighborhood with a large Armenian populationand that inspired our choice.” Not that the Armenian community thinksit’s a good one. “There’s so little mention of us in pop culture thatit would be a shame if the primary appearance was in the form oforganized crime,” says Marc A. Mamigonian at the National Associationfor Armenian Studies and Research. “Maybe TV producers are bored withthe traditional Mobs — they’re overexposed.”
Trend Watch: The Armenian Mob on TV
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Comments (1-30) of 33 Add your comment
There is such a large Armenian population in Southern California that its inevitable that they are going to start being inserted into movies and television. Unfortunatley, like any immigrant population there is a bad side, Armenian Gangs such as the notorious Bolo Khoump and to a lesser extent the Armed Loki’s are grabbing the all headlines.
Let’s not forget the Armenians whose operation Michael violently removed from a local pub on Brotherhood
HOW COULD YOU OVERLOOK THE ARMENIAN MAFIA IN “RENO 911″?! That was by far the most accurate depiction on television.
Armenians are kinda Iranian, so they’re cool.
Amen, Mat Jones. Where’s the “Reno 911″ love?
It’s interesting that Armenians are coming up in pop culture more often. There is a brief mention in “Must Love Dogs” where John Cusak even speaks Armenian and of course in Sideways there was the Armenian wedding. They even get cameo shout outs in Friends, SNL and other TV shows.
There’s a National Association of everything, isn’t there? LOL
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I remember a scene in “Six Feet Under” (HBO) where an Armenian woman, after yelling to her husband in Armenian over the phone, goes out her front door only to be killed by a brick of blue ice falling from a passing airplane. http://www.hbo.com/sixfeetunder/obituary/episode39.shtml
I believe they showed the family at her funeral. Her husband Krikor, her children Karin and Levon and her mother Khatoun Mikialian.
Even though the circumstances were grim, it was nice to see Armenians in a “normal” way.
Alan
I hope that this “trend” doesn’t grow into the same way that Italian-Americans have been stereotyped in the media as mobsters for decades…or the way Colombians are all portrayed as drug kingpins…or the way Arabs are usually portrayed as crazed hijackers or suicide bombers (many years prior to 9/11). Unfortunately, the law-biding, repectful members of an ethnic race are not heard from. It’s the few loudmouths that get the spotlight and give their quieter bretheren a bad name. I remember a newspaper article in the L.A. Times roughly three years ago that reported the growth of Armenian gangs in L.A. Only the Armenians know that we’re not all like that. Hopefully, the rest of the non-Armenian people will come to realize that, too…but only if the stereotypes end now, before it’s too late to reverse their damage.
Armenian mobsters in my opinion are the most dangerous bunch out there. They are highly intelligent because of their Eastern European ex-soviet background. I live in the Hollywood hills and my neighbors are definately Russian-Armenian mobsters, a slight glance at these people gives me the shivers. They look exactly like Italian mobsters that we see on TV, but meaner looking. You should see the cars and entourages these people have. I think they drive around guarded better than the governor.
I just wanted to comment that there is nothing wrong with Armenians getting exposed on TV. Finally, people will know who we are. I don’t mean the mafia Armenian, but the real ones. Americans are so ignorant of other nationalities, that maybe they do need to be taught of other nationalities through popular TV. Oh, and by the way, Armenians are not “kinda like Iranians” Irani, why dont’ you learn your history before you make any comment like that.
ARMENIAN ARE REALLY NICE AND KEEP ARE STREET CLEAN AND VALUE OF THE HOUSES HIGH THANK YOU ARMENIANS KEEP IT REAL
Armenians are not Iranians .. but they shared a rich culture together.. =)
We get to star in a couple of shows, only thing is were portrayed as criminals couldnt they find a doctor,lawyer,writer,scientist, hell even a dentist role for us to play. A lot of people dont know the Armenian race, but after those show Im sure they will get a positive image of the race, Thanks A Lot.
I don’t mean the mafia Armenian, but the real ones, Ernst to Ernst you moron who is going to do the research to really find out about the armenian race,you kidding, based on statistics only very few will, T.V by the way programs people, governments have use it to there advantage.
Armenian Gangs such as the notorious Bolo Khoump and to a lesser extent the Armed Loki’s are grabbing the all headlines. They aint grabbing anything, no headlines anywhere search everywhere dont know where you people are getting this info, maybe during communism.
They have some gangsters but a gang bangers lifestyle isn‘t considered in anyway right or respected by their rough necks its to low class and stupid, tagging walls, throwing signs. The real Armenian mobsters they live by the soviet prison code “thief’s world“. They’re the dangerous ones from the former soviet union. I read in book about the Russian mob that one of the most powerful families in Russia are the Armenians and Chechens. And one of most respected godfathers of all was guy named Svoy Rafi who was killed in early 90s but every 10 years mobsters from all of the world descend to Armenia to give him their respects. All mobsters here are connected to the Russians in Mascow and in any case I don’t think they get image right on tv. Its more like the movie eastern promises.
The difference between iranians and armenians is not that much their both aryan races. Armenian are chirtians and i think the first ones and were iranians are musleam. Armenians are more eouropean looking but not all.
We’re good neighbors and .5% of population is envolved in any illegal things majority are lawyars, scientists, business man.
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First of all, just because ArmenIAN ends with a suffix of IAN, that does not make it closely “linked” to Iranians. Armenian enriched that third-word cesspool of “Persia” as the first Christian nation. Armenians, as many scholars have elucidated and pointed out; are of the original Caucasoid group. They are the progenitors of the CAUCASIANS who come from the mountain 8 miles above Armenia (which is a fraction of its original size) after being surrounded by depraved islamic fanatics who sadly are its “neighbors.” This is a false and faulty portrayal of Armenians because they’re not naturally “dark” or “middle eastern,” so get EDUCATED and stop spewing out idiocy. The Armenians also contributed a lot of technological advancements during the Diaspora from the Genocide in 1915 and they settled into various parts of the world, as a result.
Clue: learn to practice some accuracy; there was never an “Armenian mafia”– it is their comraderie they have with the Russians which was really a bond they’d cemented during the Soviet Union— Armenia was a protectorate just like Puerto Rico is for the U.S.