Well sure. Santa fucking someone in the ass…

Bernie Mac was a White Sox fan who jinxed the Chicago Cubs by prematurely calling them the champs during the seventh inning stretch, only to watch in horror later as Alex Gonzalez booted a double play and Steve Bartman became a household name. He also appeared in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Two seemingly unforgivable sins. Yet, I still loved Bernie Mac. He was a loud-mouthed, insensitive powerhouse of a comedian who brandished unpopular opinions around with a clunky ease. He stood up to political correctness, the inequalities of many racist club owners, and the absurdity of life itself. He was ranked number seventy-two on Comedy Central’s all-time list of greatest stand-up comedians, and in an age where infidelity and divorce run rampant, he was lovingly married to the same woman for thirty-one years.

Bernie Mac died this morning at Northwestern Hospital, succumbing to a long battle with sarcoidosis and more recently, pneumonia. He was only fifty. For years, he toiled in relative obscurity, traveling the country and performing his trademarked brand of shock-with-a-heart humor until he was featured in The Kings Of Comedy. His own sitcom followed, as well as lucrative offers from Hollywood to star in a plethora of motion pictures, but he still made time for both stand-up and his family. Growing up in Chicago, the man was practically a legend. Stories about his early comedy gigs were told at parties, and rumblings about both his golf game and membership at famed Prestwick Country Club came up on a frequent basis.

The comedy world isn’t quite as funny anymore, and perhaps more importantly, it isn’t quite as honest.