I was sad when the very funny Bernie Mac died — mostly because he won’t be around to make people uncomfortable at political fundraisers for Barack Obama anymore. But the real tragedy over the weekend was losing Isaac Hayes.

If someone doesn’t come up to you at work today and bark out “Just talking about Shaft,” so you can answer “And we can dig it,” you need to find a new place to work immediately.

By the way, PLEASE watch this if you want to see Jesse Jackson with a big Afro introducing Hayes at a show in 1973 — and removing Hayes’ hat for him.

Music aside (Hayes was a Stax Records house musician who played with Otis Redding and wrote some of Sam and Dave’s greatest hits), it’s difficult to pinpoint Hayes’ greatest moment in a film or TV (though I suppose “Chocolate Salty Balls” on Comedy Central’s “South Park” qualifies as music. Did his performance in “I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka,” overshadow those chandeliers on the hood of his ride in “Escape From New York?” Probably not, and not many in the history of pimpdom can claim a more “pimp” attitude.

He was the Duke of New York, A-number-one.