Ross talking to Paolo: "Se vice?"

In Friends Season 01 Episode 07 "The One with the Blackout" in this scene, it seems that Ross says something to Paolo in Italian. From the context it seems he is asking "Do you understand?".

A few script sites have that line written as:

ROSS: Yeah! Se vice?

For some reason they have the English bit wrong because Ross clearly says (assuming the Italian isn't also wrong):

So, do you erm... se vice?

However I put "se vice" into Google Translate and it didn't translate from Italian. Is Ross trying to speak Italian here? If so, what is he actually trying to say?

Also, what's the joke? The audience laughs when he says it. If the joke was that he had got the Italian wrong, surely most people watching wouldn't know that.

Update: I checked the subtitles on Netflix and it was spelled “ceviche”, but same problem - that doesn’t translate either.

dialogue friends

Best Answer

Ceviche is a typically south american dish (from Peru, according to my Peruvian coworker). So the joke is that Ross was trying to speak italian and saying "Capisce?", which means something like "got it?", as you would probably have heard in italian mafia based movies, but instead said the name of a dish.

That probably went over a lot of peoples heads if they don't know the dish, but i also think the delivery was poor, as he didn't say it as you would normally say "capisce", it was so subtle for a somewhat obscure reference that it doesn't sound like a joke.

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What does Ross say to Paolo in Friends?

Ross is extremely jealous of Paolo and makes fun of him behind his back every chance he gets (he took advantage of the fact that Paolo speaks little English by calling him a "crap weasel" to his face).

What is Paulo saying in Friends?

Cosimo Fusco says the sitcom's producers told him to "just say whatever you want in Italian." The one where he ad-libbed his lines.

What did Paulo do to Rachel?

Paolo, when getting a massage from Phoebe, groped her and then exposed himself to her, and clearly expected that she would have sex with him. Thankfully, Rachel recognized this as unacceptable and tossed him out on his ear immediately, and it was the end of Paolo.

Is Paolo from Friends Italian?

Biography. Born in Matera, Italy, Fusco was educated in Los Angeles, Rome, and Paris. He is best known for his role as Paolo, one of Rachel's boyfriends, in the American sitcom Friends.

Friends - Rachel Meets \u0026 Kisses Paolo

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