Tommy is the exact opposite. In the role that defines his impressive career, Pesci plays Tommy as a little ball of chaos, a tightly wound man able to explode at any minute. And Henry sees that explosion first hand early in the film when he joins Jimmy and Tommy at a club. Tommy regales his friends about his ribald response to someone who tried to give him a hard time. While Tommy seems to enjoy the way Henry and others laugh at the anecdote, he takes exception when Henry calls him funny. Tommy stops everything and forces Henry to explain himself.
“I’m funny how?” demands Tommy, deadly serious and with more than a slight hint of menace in his voice. “Funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to fucking amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?” The sheepish Henry does his best to explain a comment that needs no explanation, and Scorsese lets the interaction continue for over a minute. But after a long pause, Henry exclaims, “Get the fuck out of here, Tommy!” Tommy explodes with laughter along with everyone else, revealing the standoff to be just a big joke. Or is it?
Mere seconds later, the owner of the club informs Tommy that he cannot put the cost of the meal on his tab, that he owes over seven thousand dollars. A disgruntled Tommy registers his offense, but the owner continues. That is until Tommy grabs a candle from the table and smashes it on the owner’s head, burning his skin in hot wax.
Although Henry and the others laugh along, and Henry even declares—”you’re funny, Tommy!”—it’s clear that the joking has turned into something violent, that it was violent all along.
The “am I funny” bit is the perfect distillation of the overall point that Scorsese makes throughout Goodfellas, that the mob life may appear to be all glamorous fun, but its supported by brutal violence that may take anyone at anytime. Scorsese leads into the club with one of his signature oners, a long unbroken shot that introduces the viewer to the mob life. The camera takes Hill’s perspective so that when the various mobsters greet him, they in fact greet us, collapsing the difference between audience and character. Through his narration, Hill describes the glory of mob life, from the outrageous names given to each character, like Freddy No Nose and Jimmy Two Times, to the riches and ease they all enjoy.
But of course all that glamour comes at a cost. At any second, things could go from fun to deadly, just because a brute like Tommy decides he wants to bully someone. Which brings us back to Liotta’s laugh. As those who use the meme understand, Liotta’s laugh is obnoxious and over-the-top. He’s laughing like no one in real life would laugh. And that’s because Hill isn’t really laughing. He’s terrified of Tommy, and he knows that Tommy would kill him in a second if he got the inclination.
