Context

This line is spoken by Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci) in the film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese (1990).

After Tommy DeVito tells a funny effing story (laden with F-bombs, like everything else he says), fellow mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) tells him, "you're a funny guy." DeVito doesn't take that as a compliment, though. Danny DeVito, sure, he's funny, but not Tommy DeVito. Tommy DeVito wants to be taken seriously. "I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh?" The situation gets more and more tense until a few minutes—and a few dozen F-bombs—later, when DeVito acts like it was a joke all along. Haha, he's so funny… and we mean that in the best possible way.

Sit back and chuckle (or don't) at this clip.

Where you've heard it

You hear this when someone tells another person he's funny, and that person has seen way too many Joe Pesci movies.

Additional Notable References:

The members of Goodfeathers, the pigeons from Animaniacs, are one big Goodfellas parody. We think they're swell.

• T-shirt
• Onesie (because babies are known for their senses of humor)

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Oh, just take the compliment. Being called funny isn't an insult. Plus, you're not Joe Pesci. And you probably don't have connections to the mob, like Pesci did. Allegedly, this story is all true, inspired by something that happened to him and improvised into the script. So if all you've done is watch Goodfellas a few dozen times, drop it with the decades-old movie quotes, okay?