"I ain't scared of you motherf**kers!"

Bernie Mac and what's maybe the greatest standup set of all time.

The backstory:

Bill Bellamy was backstage with Bernie at [HBO's] "Def Comedy Jam" when he coined that phrase. The story goes that when he did "Def Comedy Jam," it was a big night, with Bill telling him how everybody knew that if you did really well, it meant good things were going to happen to you afterwards. The guy that went on before Bernie got booed--and Bill was backstage with Bernie and told him, "Be careful out there--this audience is tough." Bernie replied, "I've been going at this too long--I've worked too hard--I ain't scared of 'em!"…He went onstage and just said, "I ain't scared of you mother-------!" and the audience went crazy. [Bernie Mac's widow, Rhonda McCullough,] talked about how he didn't even write or plan that--it just came from him. It really showed who he was when he came out and said that.

The jokes are nothing special, but oh man the attitude, rhythm, and performance of it is all just incredible. Gets in rhythm and owns the place. How he uses the DJ is masterful. And the crowd reactions are perfect. So are those pants too. Because of course you need an airbrushed portrait of your face on your pants. How else would people know what your face looks like? 😂

Over at Quora, someone posted this: Why is it funny when Bernie Mac repeatedly says "You don't understand. I ain't scared of you motherfu*kers"? I liked this answer:

There are two kinds of comedians. The first kind make people laugh with the actual content of their jokes. They have great diction and great style, they make deep observations and make all of this sound funny. I'm of course talking about comedians like George Carlin.

He takes up completely serious topics like religion and global warming and makes it funny through satire or otherwise.

The second kind, the kind like Bernie Mac, don't focus so much on content so much as they focus on how they deliver this content. So people crack up not because what he's saying is hilarious, but because of the completely ridiculous way he does it…Of course all comedians need to have both content and diction. You can't have just one and make people laugh.

Bernie Mac is funny in this set. And I don’t mean the jokes are funny, I mean he is funny.