I wish I'd seen Deadwood before I went to Baku. Maybe another day I'll write a post on how watching the Godfather taught me all I needed to know about clan politics in Azerbaijan -- Carpetblogger, March 2007
Apparently, according to the Wikileaks, the former US DCM in Baku compared Ilham Aliyev to Michael/Sonny Corleone in the Godfather in a cable in September 2009. This has gotten a lot of play! Because it is true! We said it a long time ago! Must credit Carpetblog!
But it's more true that living in Baku is just like living in Deadwood, a boomtown in the HBO program of the same name, which may be the best show that has been on television, ever. We were slavishly devoted to it, just as we once were to Alias, Flight of the Conchords, Nurse Jackie, and most recently, Gavin and Stacey, which are all good but not as profane.
Way back in March 2007, we compared Baku to Deadwood, here. The Godfather is also an apt comparison, but Deadwood is much better. The DCM probably read our post and agreed, but had to choose a more culturally accessable reference point. The brilliant dialogue in Deadwood, which has been described as Shakespearean and used the word fuck 43 times in the first hourlong episode, demonstrates the grammatic versatility of the word "cocksucker." It probably didn't get a wide audience in Foggy Bottom.
It should have.
*We're pretty confident that this is the only time Carpetblogger should have appeared in a cable from Azerbaijan.
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