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BIG BONE-DED, HEAVY STRUCTURED, & HUNG LOW:

A Tribute to Bernie Mac

(October 5, 1957 – August 9, 2008)     

By:  Sheerene Whitfield

Online Article – September 2008

Though The Original Kings of Comedy was the runway from which Bernie Mac’s career took off on a one-way flight to MEGAsuccessland, I knew from the very first moment I saw him “coming to the staaaaage” on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam that superstardom was on the horizon.  The year was 1991.  A mid-thirties Mac, complete with flattop, horn-rimmed glasses, bug-eyes, multi-colored shirt, and an airbrushed portrait of himself on the right leg of his graffiti-laden, faded blue jeans, rhythmically sauntered onto the stage, confidently snatched the mic off the stand, and audaciously proclaimed to the audience, “I ain’t scared of you muthaf@#$*#s!”.  What an ice-breaker, huh?  Need I say that he had me at ‘hello’?  His ‘hello’, along with “You don’t understand!” and “Kick ass!” – the music cue for DJ Kid Capri, who spun beats during Bernie’s cleverly timed interludes – became the catch phrases that sent the crowd roaring with laughter.  It wasn’t just the regular kind of laughter either – you know, the “Ha ha, very funny” laughter given to ‘average’ to ‘pretty good’ comedians.  No sirreee, it was the kind that gets IN you and makes your head tingle, brings tears to your eyes, and makes you forget who you came with and what people think about you.  It was that wildly magical sound that, for comedians, must sprinkle fairy dust into the air that spells out “Quit your day job!”  The Mac Man’s cuss word and sex-heavy act began with his explanation of how he’s… “blessed” – “I’m big bone-ded, I’m heavy-structured, I’m hung low; if I pull my sh— out, this whole room [will] get dark.”  Much of his subsequent material, with the exception of the closing joke about ratting out one of his ‘boys’ in court, is sex-related.  Although his subject matter mirrored that of other Def Jam guests, none can deny that Bernie had his own special style that separated him from the pack.  Face it, the man was just plain FUNNY. 

 Though his earlier material was highly sexual in content, Mr. Mac was in no way a one-dimensional comedian.  As his stand-up career blossomed, we began to see… other sides of Bernie Mac.  For me, and likely for the majority of you, the funniest, and most memorable of his jokes were the ones about his “sister’s kids”.  Awe, come on now, don’t tell me the words “Him downstairs” and “…some milk and cooooookies” aren’t forever encoded in your brains.  Moreover, Mac offered a very candid, no-holds-barred concept of parenting that may have come off as ‘over-the-top’ to a lot of people, but if you’re old-school like me, you get it.  You may not “buss their heads until the white meat show”, as he would say; but you were feelin’ Bernie, nonetheless. 

 For many of us, Def Comedy Jam was our introduction to comedian Bernie Mac.  However, the show, hosted by Martin Lawrence, merely thrust him into the national spotlight.  He had been doing comedy since high school.  Born Bernard Jeffrey McCullough in 1957, on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Mac began his career in stand-up at Chicago’s Cotton Pickin' Club.  At 32, he took home the $3,000 grand prize from the Miller Lite Comedy Search, which multiplied his popularity on the comedy scene.  Following Def Comedy Jam, he opened for headliners Dionne Warwick, Redd Foxx, and Natalie Cole; had a brief stint as a talk show host on HBO’s Midnight Mac; and began to dabble in acting, landing minor roles in films like Mo’ Money, Who’s the Man?, and House Party 3.  Then … along came Friday – Ice Cube’s 1995 film in which Bernie landed his breakout role as “Pastor Clever”.  That’s when “Cullawd hav’ mercy!” became a permanent part of my own ghetto slang.  He went on to appear in other productions including Booty Call, How to Be a Player, What’s the Worst That Could Happen?, and who could EVER forget… LIFE!  (“Jangle Leg, Jangle Leg” and “I da pappy!”)

 In 2000, Mac teamed up with fellow comedians Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and D.L. Hughley for The Original Kings of Comedy tour, and subsequent film of the same name directed by Spike Lee.  The film, produced by MTV Films and Latham Entertainment, and distributed by Paramount Pictures, grossed a total of $38,168,022 at the box offices before being released on DVD in early 2001.  In the film, Mac jokingly admonished network television for not giving him, like many of his comrades, his own television show, accusing them of being “scared I’m gon’ say somethin’.”  Then, in 2001, Fox TV gave Mac his own sitcom, The Bernie Mac Show.  The show, loosely based on events from his own life, showed us a softer, kinder, fatherly (but still old-school, don’t get it twisted) side of Bernie.  It ran for six seasons and was a huge success, receiving numerous awards including an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Writing’, the Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting, and the Humanitas Prize for television writing that promotes human dignity.

 From 2001 to 2007, Mac stretched his acting muscles, starring in films like Ocean’s Eleven, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Bad Santa, Guess Who?, and Transformers.  He landed his first starring role, as a retired baseball player, in the 2004 film Mr. 3000.  He also did voice acting in animated features, including Inspector Gadget: The Biggest Caper Ever (2005) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (Set to release in November of 2008).  At the time of his death, he had just finished working on the upcoming film Soul Men, also set to release this November, in which he starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes – God rest his soul – whose death was only one day after Mac’s. 

 Bernie Mac’s final departure occurred on the morning of August 9, 2008, at the young age of 50.  According to his publicist, he died of complications due to pneumonia.  The Chicago Tribune, August 9, 2008, reported that Mac had disclosed (a few years prior) that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs. He was survived by his high school sweetheart and wife of over 30 years, Rhonda McCullough.  They have one daughter, Je'Niece, and one granddaughter, Jasmine.   

 A common theme among the eulogies at his funeral was that Mac was a family man.  Both Steve Harvey and D.L. Hughley spoke of how he talked about his family all the time.  Samuel L. Jackson said in his speech, “I hope that I can be half the husband, father…. and… I’m not a grandfather yet, but… I hope when I do get a grandchild I will be able to interact with her the way he did with his granddaughter ‘cause he was amazing.”  The funeral was held at House of Hope Church in Chicago on Saturday, August 16, 2008.  More than 6,000 people came to pay their respects. As Cedric The Entertainer said, “He’s still the hottest ticket in town.” 

Bernie Mac was a king.  He shone the brightest, at least to me, when he hit that stage!   There was just nothing like seeing the man do his stand-up routines.  Steve Harvey said of Mac, “Nobody wanted to follow Bernie Mac, ‘cause he was just too much… He was like a train wreck… Bernie would take his jokes and just run them into the side of ya; he didn’t care how you felt about it.”  Both Harvey and Hughley quoted Mac as always saying, “I walk alone.”  He was an individual.  A trailblazer.  In Hughley’s heartfelt speech, he said, “The hardest thing for a Black man to do is to be an individual, is to stand on your own, and to say what you mean and to not be influenced by anybody, to make your own mind up and your own way… and Bernie Mac was a man – believe me when I tell you – he stood on his own, he said what he believed.” 

Good job, Bernard Jeffrey McCullough!  I love you.  We love you!  May you forever rest in peace.