Tommy DeVito is entertaining fellow gangsters with stories of his exploits when one of his listeners, Henry Hill, tells him he’s funny. The laughter at the loudest table in the restaurant abruptly dies .

Tommy, played by Joe Pesci in a career-defining performance, asks, “Funny how?”

Henry (Ray Liotta) is too unsettled to explain himself — he’s intimately familiar with the extent of Tommy’s brutality — but Tommy keeps pushing him. “I’m funny how? Funny, like I’m a clown? Do I amuse you?” The two men silently lock eyes. Henry chuckles nervously and raises his hands in defeat.

After a few beats, Tommy reveals that it was all a big joke, and everybody at the table starts loudly laughing again, as if they had all been in on the bit. Then the owner of the restaurant interjects, asking that Tommy pay his bill. Tommy, irate for real this time, viciously beats him.