"Yo mama" joke

A mother insult is a reference to a person's mother through the use of phrases such as "your mom", "yer mum", "ya mum", or "yo mama", frequently used to insult the target by way of his or her mother. Used as an insult, "your mom..." preys on the fact that people commonly love and revere their mothers, making the insult particularly and globally offensive. "Your mom" can be combined with most types of insults, although suggestions of promiscuity, obesity, poverty, poor hygiene or stupidity are particularly common. Compared to other types of insults, "your mom" insults are especially likely to incite violence. Slang variants such as "yo momma", "yer ma" or "yer maw" are sometimes used, depending on the local dialect. Insults involving "Your mom" are commonly used when playing the dozens. Additionally, this phrase is frequently used in playful banter between friends. Although this may appear to be a recent phenomenon, one can trace its roots far back in history. Indeed, William Shakespeare appears to utilize such a device in Act I Scene 1 of Timon of Athens:

Painter: "Y'are a dog."
Apemantus: "Thy mother's of my generation. What's she, if I be a dog?"

Although the phrase has a long history of including a description portion (such as the old, mostly harmless insult "your mama wears Army shoes"), the phrase "yo mama" by itself, without any qualifiers, has become commonly used as an all-purpose insult or an expression of defiance. In the UK and Australia instead of "yo mama", "your mum" or "ya' mum" is more commonly used.

Use as a retort

"Your mom" is also sometimes used as a sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek retort to either a mild criticism or even an innocuous statement. This often results in a sexual innuendo, as in the following example:

Speaker 1: What are you doing?

Speaker 2: Your mom.

Another example of the "yo momma" joke used as sexual innuendo is:

Speaker 1: Wow, this is really long!

Speaker 2: Yeah, thats what your mom said last night.

The classic "Your Momma" joke follows this guideline: Your momma is so (blank) she (blank), in which the first blank is substituted for fat, stupid, etc., and the second is an example of the first blank.

Example Yo momma is so stupid, she put a quarter in a parking meter and waited for a gumball.

In popular culture

"Your mom" jokes became common in North American pop culture in the early nineties. The Pharcyde's 1992 track "Ya Mama" echoed it, as did the film Napoleon Dynamite, in which one of the supporting characters utters the phrase "your mom goes to college." Mexican film Y Tu Mama Tambien's title is an equivalent usage in Spanish ("and your momma too"). There is also a television show Yo Momma featuring contestants "playing the dozens". The Yo Momma-affiliated Web 2.0 community YoMomma.tv allows users to exchange mother insults in online battles. The Australian hiphop outfit Butterfingers released a song called "Yo Mama" that made number 17 on the 2004 Triple J Hottest 100.

In the early nineties, British comedy duo Newman and Baddiel of The Mary Whitehouse Experience added an extra layer of irony to the mother insult by using it extensively in their "History Today" routines in which two restrained elderly university professors debate history seriously until breaking into childish insults, often using the format "See that X? That's your mum that is."

See also

• The dozens
• Fighting words
• Maledicta
• Taunt
• Chav
• Yo Momma - TV series

External Links

• YoMomma.tv Online community for uploading and exchanging mother insults