Martin Scorsese Presents: ‘Goncharoff’, the greatest mafia film ever made

With one caveat: “Goncharov” is actually a meme — or more accurately, the work of hundreds of people around the world who collectively developed the backstory and all the plot elements into a movie that never existed.

“This almost became like Argo,” said Jamie Cohen, a media studies professor at CUNY Queens College, referring to the pseudo-science-fiction film that CIA agents used as a front to release hostages in Iran in 1979. More complex because it creates a kind of large-scale fan fiction – almost with the idea of ​​turning the movie into reality. At the same time, it is also a joke or a group joke.”

Likes “Explain the girl“And the “Her boyfriend is distractedA fake Scorsese flick falls under the strict definition of a meme: “something digital, consciously generated online from other memes and allowed to be replicated or remixed by others,” Cohen said. It features new text overlays and combines fan fiction and sound and visuals.

How an image of a woman screaming in a man’s ear became a viral meme

“Goncharov,” in other words, is a meme on steroids. It has its origins in an old shoe post with a weird tag on Tumblr, a microblogging-focused social media site founded in 2007.

Tumblr user Zootycoon posted in 2020 about fake shoes purchased online. The fake shoes were referring to a Scorsese movie. tag read: “Martin Scorse GONCHAROV presents, produced and directed by Domenico Procacci, the greatest mafia movie ever made. It’s a film…about Neapolitan Mafia.”

After one year, The post has been repostedAlso included was a screenshot of a sarcastic answer that reads, “This idiot hasn’t seen Goncharov.” As of this week, hundreds had accumulated scene scripts, plot ideas, and other creative material. Even the musicGoncharov was a Russian man who tried to end his life of murder by moving to Naples in 1970.

The plot is as follows: Goncharov falls in a relationship with Andrei “The banker” Dadano while pursuing normality. Katya Goncharov has an affair with Sophia, Goncharov’s spouse. There is an ice-capturing villain in the middle of all this. Spoiler alert: Goncharov is the only character who dies.

It’s still not clear how the shoe brand inspired an online fake movie. However, Tumblrdogsuffrage user I assume“Goncharov” could have been a misspelled spelling of “Gomorrah”, the name of a 2008 Scorsese-backed movie.

Regardless, the film’s cult spread eventually spilled over into Twitter and TikTok — causing utter confusion for some users, who initially thought “Goncharov” was the real deal. This is how the film became a running joke. Even Scorsese admits to it in a Tik Tok videoFrancesca, Francesca’s daughter, sent this message on Saturday.

“Yes. I made that movie years ago,” Scorsese replied when Francesca asked if he had seen the news about “Goncharov.”

More than just a test Mind manipulation In the world of fake film, Cohen said “Goncharov” marked the culmination of “an interesting cut of Internet ephemera from the 2010s”—a decade marked by the proliferation of fan fiction and fan art. It also confirms a “new type of Tumblr revival” as the social media platform gains more users following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter.

Cohen said that Tumblr was always good at threaded, stacked replies where people build upon each other.” “It was the ideal space for this virus, especially as people migrate from the chaos of Twitter.”

Cohen suggested that “Goncharov”, like many other memes is getting closer to the Internet. summit.

“When memes become mainstream, seduction, secrecy or internet ownership goes with them,” he stated. However, Goncharov was a social media shining spot – a great example how the digital world can be fun.

Cohen stated, “For all the ugly and the chaos this is at most one of those moments that gives me hope because it’s participatory, positive, and people find joy and don’t get hurt.”