"Billy Budd" Discussion on "The Sopranos"

I had already planned to show this scene in my Moby-Dick class in June when I discovered this transcription in Andrew Delbanco's brilliant Melville: His World and Work.

(At the dinner table at Meadow's apartment)

Finn: Did you like Billy Budd?

A.J.: It was OK. My teacher says it's a gay book.

Carmela: Oh, that is ridiculous! I’m sorry, but Billy Budd is not a homosexual book.

Meadow: Actually, it is, Mother.

Carmela: I saw the movie, Meadow, with Terence Stamp.

Colin (Meadow’s roommate): Terence Stamp was in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Carmela: I don't know about that. But Billy Budd is the story of an innocent sailor being picked on by an evil boss—

Meadow: —who’s picking on him out of self-loathing caused by homosexual feelings in a military context.

Carmela: Oh, please!

Alex: Actually, Mrs. Soprano, there is a passage in the book where Melville compares Billy to a nude statue of Adam before the fall.

A.J.: Really?

Tony: I thought you read it.

Carmela: So it's a Biblical reference . Does that make it gay?

. . .

Tony: Must be a gay book. Billy Budd is the ship’s florist, right? (Laughter)

Meadow: Leslie Fiedler has written extensively on gay themes in literature since the early ‘60s—Billy Budd in particular.

Carmela: Well, she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Meadow: She's a he, Mother, and he’s lectured at Columbia as a matter of fact.

Carmela: Well, maybe he's gay, you ever thought of that?

—“Eloise,” The Sopranos (4.12)

Has there ever been a television series with dialogue like this? Go here to see a catalogue of intertextual references/allusions in The Sopranos.