Haha never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I was going to see Skinny Joey on VladTV. Absolutely unbelievable. The very same platform that got Keefe D indicted for murder lol

Let's be real. who is going to try and touch Merlin?? no one. Merlino can go anywhere in NYC day or night and not have an issue. In fact, made guys would probably talk to him.
A guy like Cicale, Borello, Alite or others would need to be very strategic as to when and where they go on NYC.

VladTV is notorious for platforming rats. Joey is in good company lol

Big mistake by Merlino. The man who runs that site is a total creep, he always has been. I think he set Merlino up. In only a short interview that was probably not supposed to be about asking Mafia questions, the guy asked Merlino if 3 different people were bosses, and about killings. Merlino, to his credit, kept his cool and did not respond the way the creep wanted. I never liked Vlad due to his giggle as he asks inciting questions to all guests, but this was supposed to be the beginning of a partnership between him and Merlino. Instead he came out as a double crosser. Merlino should drop out of any agreement they had. At the very end Merlino calmly says "I did not come here to talk about that, came here to talk about rats."

This is supposed to be the boss ?? My mother beat me...awww

I come from a family of 10....Who do you expect to slap ya around when there's no father around ??

We used to get a vacuum pipe slap in the ass...Next time we knew what not to do !!

Yeah I don't think this is a very good move... Going on VladTV is almost like surviving a police questioning.

Joey Merlino — You better wake up already!


This entire mess that Joey Merlino is creating (and make no mistake about it fellas, because this IS a mess,) and the resulting negative exposure he’s generating for himself from all the publicity surrounding him is one of the worst things — if not the worst thing — that Merlino could have done (to himself I might add.)

From his ridiculous “The Skinny” podcast starring Joey Merlino, to his latest faux pas of granting an interview to Vlad TV, what does he think he’s accomplishing here? If it weren’t so sad and foolish, it would actually be comical….but its not. It’s just plain stupid!

You know, if he were just some nobody, just some dorky computer nerd sitting at a keyboard in his daddy’s basement getting cheap thrills, that would be one thing...But he’s not.

Because if you believe what local and federal law enforcement authorities have to say about him, he is, or was, the leader of Philadelphia’s Mob…So it begs the question, ”Has Merlino lost all his fucking marbles?”

Regardless of whether Merlino is still involved in organized crime or not is patently immaterial. What the fuck does he REALLY think he is accomplishing with all this nonsense? Does he really believe that he’s “exposing” mob informants for what they are? If so, thats fucking laughable!

Isn’t he sharp enough to know in his heart of hearts that the general public already knows all of this bullshit and really doesn’t give two shits about any of these informants or the guys put in jail by their testimony? Is he REALLY that naive?

I believe that the correct answer to that question is —- no, he isn’t naive. I find that very hard to believe. Joey’s a knockaround guy and he knows better than that…or he should know better than that.

Merlino may not be a book-educated guy. He’s no Rhodes Scholar. But, he has graduated from a thousand schools of hard knocks and he’s a “street guy” through and through. He should know better…and deep down, I think he does.

So, for my money, something else must be going on behind the scenes over here….Because I do not believe Merlino has suddenly turned “public advocate” for the betterment of the wrongly incarcerated or to help “straighten out” the judicial process. WTF, he became a social worker now? LOL. Don’t make me fucking laugh!

There’s gotta be another reason why Merlino is doing all this. Is he broke? Does he need money and so he thinks a podcast is gonna generate the finances he needs? If so, then he’d better think again, and go get himself into a real business that will make some real money for him.

Is he looking for his “15 minutes of fame?” I don’t think so. Joey doesn’t strike me as that type of guy.

Does he REALLY believe that making a fool out of himself on public television and the internet is really going to adversely affect the lives or podcasts of any of these rats? I doubt it. In fact, to the contrary, all Merlino is doing is helping these idiots generate more publicity and views for their podcasts.

If you really hate rats they way you profess you do (and I don’t doubt that he does,) how utterly stupid of him to inadvertently help promote their rat platforms.

I didn’t watch the entire Vlad interview…I didn’t have to. But the part I watched was very embarrassing to say the least. Joey Merlino looked like the preverbal “deer caught in the headlights.”

What was going through this man’s mind at that minute? He had to know he was being set-up and that he was suddenly “on the hot seat” in front of millions of viewers. How embarrassing for him (and for the guys back in Philly.)

All the various "mob rat podcasts" as well as the accompanying "rat push back" genre, has become like Barnum & Bailey's Three-Ring Circus!

PS: If you didn't know better, it would almost make you think they're all working together in unison to promote all this nonsense for one another. LOL
—
Side Note: In closing, let me just say this. I don’t know who’s been pissing in Joey’s ear giving him such bad advice. But he’d better kick them in their ass and chase them ASAP. Because he’s being led astray and he’s not doing himself any favors by pursuing this path he’s on.

My understanding is that Joey’s got some very dear childhood friends back home in Philly. If so, then they better get together and sit him down and knock some sense into this guy’s head, before he puts his foot into his mouth any further than he already has it.

…”The Other Guy”

A very bad look on Joey.

He is not involved any longer, thats basically a known fact and NYC could care less. He is on VLAD and has a podcast to make legitimate money ( which he is doing ). The mafia is dead and the few guys left on the street are living in the past.
Just take a stroll down 18th ave in Brooklyn and take a look.. the Italian hoods are done and unfortunately replaced with NOT the best type of immigrants. Many dont embrace our traditions.

It was not that long ago he was indicted in that big bust with New York.

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2016/08/05/bada-bing-joey-merlino-indictment/

I feel embarrassed for the few guys that remain in that tiny family. This is your boss?? Oh man I would kill myself

Ooooohh they care. Trust me on that. You'll hear more about it soon kid

His lawyer Edwin Jacobs should have advised him not to do it, but we can only guess what his motivation is. Time will tell..

We knew when we first heard this was happening that Joey wasn’t going to say anything of interest and he was going to deny anything involving himself and the LCN.

It’s not like he was going to go on there and say “yea I was the Boss, but I’m retired, but I made 23 guys and made $14million and have 4 hits under my belt”

Yes next time he should take the fifth lol.

Really??? what are they going to do, protest his podcast and call him mobaphobic ?

motivation was $$

I watched the entire interview and it was awkward. Anytime Vlad mentioned the word Mafia you could see the awkwardness coming. Any known person he brought up, Joey said he read it in the paper. This was a quick cash grab with very little information taken away from it. Joey said all the same stuff he's been saying in his podcasts.

So the FBI and others can tell stories about him, and leak stories to the media, but he finally responds with his videos (Which are great) and he is attacked. He has been accused of everything from fixing the Super Bowl to fixing the election for Trump! He has a right to do a podcast, and I love it. Lots of people here are triggered, but too bad. Capeci and others can do stories on guys with no way for people accused on the sites to reply---now Joey is replying, Great Joey, keep it up.

Vlad screwed it up by not asking the right questions, or bring out the right stories, such as the super bowl story. Merlino should stick to his own podcast, Vlad cannot be trusted.

100%!... And not only that, but by sticking his head out in public in such a blatant and ridiculous and counterproductive way, Joey’s not doing himself any favors. Plus, it's not even in keeping with a knockaround mentality.

In fact, in my opinion, he’s being very foolish. And aside from the earlier comments I made here today, here’s a few more reasons why I feel this way…

#1) Ultimately, NOTHING positive will ever be accomplished by going on this silly "quest” to expose rats and informants. Don't you think that the vast majority of people who even bother to pay attention to this type of mob stuff already know what the typical informant is all about? And equally important. Do you REALLY think that the average person out there in the world even really cares? OF COURSE THEY DON’T.

Everyone already knows that informants are generally low-life types willing to commit just about any criminal offense out there, but who are not willing to do jail time when they get caught, so they become rats to save their own skins. Big deal!

And don’t we already know that they sometimes lie? As do certain prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and the defendants and their defense lawyers too for that matter?…So what? Big deal!

Does anyone on this forum really believe THATS a new revelation that the public doesn’t already know about and really, really needs to hear about?

Or, for that matter, even give two fucks to hear about? Come on now? This is actually getting stupid at this point! If anyone really believes that, then there’s a bridge in Brooklyn that I wanna sell you, ok? LOL

#2) As I stated earlier this morning, maybe if you're a legitimate guy who hasn’t got a clue in life, or you're a straight-up legitimate sucker, then maybe you wanna delude yourself and actually believe all this hogwash and nonsense that these newfangled “crusaders” are on to "enlighten” everyone about mob informants.

Or maybe, if you have a failed podcast, you want to try and pump up your ratings so you create a lot of sensational nonsense in the hopes that viewers will come to your podcast and listen to your tales of bullshit.

What do they call this silly failed movement of theirs? I don’t bother listening to any of this trash so I really couldn’t tell you. But they better give it a break already, because its so ridiculously childish and stupid that anybody with half-a-brain in their head has to laugh at them and fell embarrassed for them!
—

But Joey Merlino? Well, He's another story altogether. He’s different, or at least he should think differently. And I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt here and say that he’s no dope. That said, Joey really has no business involving himself with such idiots in such infantile nonsense. With his life's experiences, Merlino is way beyond that sort of thing in life. He should distance himself from all this nonsense immediately....If not sooner!

The problem with Joey is that he was always a little too independent. What Joey wanted to do was always more important than what anybody else wanted. A guy like that is always going to be a problem in the long run. If he feels a certain way, he is not going to listen to reason. Telling bookies to go fuck themselves should've been a fucking sign lol

The entire interview was stupid and almost comical, (in a bad way.) Not to mention, as F_White said earlier, it was a very bad look for Joey, a former knockaround guy doing interviews for commentators under the guise of "entertainment" and "setting the record straight."

His name is NOT Michael Franzese, Sammy Gravano, John Alite, that idiot Borello, or any of those other rats who proliferate YouTube nowadays.

By all accounts, Joey Merlino has been a standup guy all these years and has done his jail time like a man. So I ask you, WTF??

Regardless of what some people here might say, that he is "pushing back" on the rats and "exposing them for what they are." The truth is....the REAL truth is, that a man like Merlino is not supposed to even address such bullshit topics, nor is he supposed to be platforming himself in any way, shape or form on YouTube for the benefit of people who could care less about him, don't give two shits about what happens to him, and just wanna be "entertained" on the cheap while eating bags of popcorn.

Truth be told, Merlino's gone off the reservation with this one. And I don't just mean the Vlad interview, I mean with the entire YouTube show "The Skinny."

Is he trying to be a sports tout? Is he trying to be a comedian and entertain? Does he just enjoy telling war tales about his past? Is he that desperate for money that he's trying to make a profitable business out of a podcast? I mean what is going on here with him?


..."The Other Guy"

Did you ask your husband about doing time like a man, just saying.
How can you be the "Other Guy" if you have a husband?

Mob Tube is in decline, the fact that Sammy is doing a Sit-down with these wannabes, tells me he's running out of content. I mean Gene "Lips" Borello, really Sammy, this guy wouldn't even be parking cars at the Plaza Suite for you, back in the day, gtfoh.

Ok, I see what you’re doing here.

Quite obviously, you don’t like what I’m saying about this failing “rat pushback movement” that certain numbskulls are trying to promote. But you know you can’t go toe-to-toe with me in any intelligent discussion, because you’d lose that discussion badly. So now you’re hoping to derail this thread by insulting me.

But you miscalculated one very important thing, SissyNote, “In order for you to insult me, I must first respect and value your opinion, which I do not!…nice try though.” LOL

Looks like I touched a nerve. You can flame me all you want but the facts are, that I never insulted you, I merely quoted a statement you, yourself, made on this forum. You stated that you had a husband on a previous post. That's fine, if your a woman, you submit good content, I have no problem with that, but its disingenuous to try to pass yourself off as one of the guys when you have a husband. That makes you either a woman or gay man, which I'm not going to hate on either but it degrades your street cred. Maybe you and Lisa are one in the same person, I don't know but until you clarify what meant when you stated you have a husband, I have to call you out here.

MORE PROOF THAT WILL CAUSE A FEW HEART ATTACKS


Since certain people wanna continue to play games, then let’s play games, shall we?

Here is even more evidence, in fact, proof positive evidence, that so-called “pushing back on informants” podcasts are failing miserably;

One particular podcast that focuses on the subject of “lying rats” has been operating for several years already. Yet, more than two years later, they have only a measly 1500 subscribers to show for all their desperate efforts. How sad.

Clearly, this shows the content they offer sucks, and that their podcast is sucking wind badly, which only further goes to prove my point. Which is their content is so boring that nobody even bothers visiting their podcast.


A different, but affiliated podcast, created at least as many years ago, which also focuses on “exposing rats” is in similarly bad shape. I believe this podcast has only around 1000 subscribers.

1500 subs? 1000 subs? Ya gotta be kidding, right?

Thats all they’ve got to show after being in business for years? (If you can even call it a “business” when you suck wind that badly.)

If you were running a legitimate bricks-n-mortar business that produced those paltry numbers, you’d have put the key in the front door and filed for bankruptcy protection already.

PS: Quite frankly, I wouldn’t even trust these embarrassing statistics. Because, no doubt, along the way they’ve also paid money to “buy” views and subs to try and bolster their appearance and failing podcasts to make themselves look relevant….which, clearly, they are not!

It’s actually laughable.

'He" refuses to answer regarding him having a husband. He claims he is a guy who knew Mafia members, now he has a husband.