What does it mean to "give somebody a pass"?

Question

In The Wolf of Wall Street there is a comical scene with Donnie Azoff and Brad Bodnick, where Donnie gets into a public brawl with Brad. Their talk:

Brad: I’m gonna give you a pass. Just give me the case.

Donnie: You’re gonna give me a pass?

Brad: Look, it’s a figure of f*ing speech.

Donnie: Oh, my gosh. The Emperor of F..cksville came down form F..cksville to give me a pass!

From the context I may guess that "give a pass" means something like "ok, I’m gonna forgive you this time". Is it so? Does it have some additional meaning?

Answer 1

In this context the pass is indeed only a "pass" as in to let the other person go, or; off the hook. In the scene it is most likely comical because Donnie is in some way "lower" than Brad, who i am assuming has money, Brad is certainly dumbfounded that Donnie thinks he controls the situation. But the comedic aspect is that it truly IS Donnie who controls it (I don't know the context) and Brad refuses to accept it due to pride. He probably needs Donnie for some reason or another