Pootie Tang, born in "a Chicago Gary, Indiana, Indiana," is portrayed as a ladies' man who is "too cool for words", even as a young child. His life is marked by the deaths of his mother "Momma Dee," and shortly thereafter his father "Daddy Tang," who dies after being mauled by a gorilla during his shift at the steel mill (the third time someone had suffered that particular fate). Just before Daddy Tang's death, Pootie inherits his father's belt and is told that (as long as he has right on his side) he can "whoop anyone's ass with just that belt."