Mother insult

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A mother insult is a reference to a person's mother through the use of phrases such as "your mother" or other regional variants, frequently used to insult the target by way of his or her mother.^[1] Used as an insult, "your mother..." preys on widespread sentiments of filial piety, making the insult particularly and globally offensive. "Your mother" can be combined with most types of insults, although suggestions of promiscuity are particularly common.^[2] Insults based on obesity, incest, age, poverty, poor hygiene, unattractiveness, or stupidity may also be used. Compared to other types of insults, "your mother" insults are especially likely to incite violence.^[3] Slang variants such as "yo mama", "yo momma", "yer ma", "your mum" or "your mom" are sometimes used, depending on the local dialect. Insults involving "your mother" are commonly used when playing the dozens. Additionally, this phrase is frequently used in playful banter between friends.

Although the phrase has a long history of including a description portion (such as the old, mostly harmless insult "your mother wears combat boots"), the phrase "yo mama" by itself, without any qualifiers, has become commonly used as an all-purpose insult^[1] or an expression of defiance.

Contents 1 Use as a retort 2 Historic usage 3 In popular culture 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Use as a retort

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

Speaker 1: I want to give you something.

Speaker 2: That's what your mother said to me last night.

Speaker 1: What's your dad doing?

Speaker 2: Your mother!

Speaker 1: What do you wanna do next?

Speaker 2: Your mother!

The classic "Your mother" joke is a snowclone of the form: "Your mother is so X she's Y", in which "fat", "stupid", "ugly", etc. are substituted for X, and Y is an example, as shown below:

Your mother is so dumb, she sat on the TV and watched the sofa!

Your mother is so fat, she stood on the scales and it said "one at a time"!

Your mother is so dumb, she starved to death in a supermarket!

Sometimes, rather than the X and Y formula, the "your mother" joke can take the form of a metaphor, for instance:

Your mother's like a bowling ball: she gets fingered, chucked in the gutter and still comes back for more!

Or

Your mother's like The Titanic, because she's guaranteed to go down on the first date!

It is also used occasionally as a nonsensical retort, as in the following example:

Speaker 1: I told you to knock before you enter my room!

Speaker 2: Your mom.

or sometimes it is made fun of;

your mom's aunt's friend's daughter's boyfriend's dog's mate!

Furthermore, in the case of the last example, a clever speaker can also turn a rather feeble retort into a rather feeble assertion:

Speaker 1: What did you have for dinner last night?

Speaker 2: Your mom.

Speaker 1: ...and for dessert?

Speaker 2: Your mom.

In the film Napoleon Dynamite, Deb shows up at Napoleon's door, selling "Deb's Glamor Shots" and homemade boondoggle keychains. She tells Napoleon that she is "trying to earn money for college", to which Kip replies (offscreen) "Your mom goes to college".

Frequently "Your Mom" jokes are also combined with the Chuck Norris variants. Example:

Speaker 1: Joelle's mom was tired today.

Speaker 2: Obviously Chuck Norris got paid last night.

Historic usage

Although this may appear to be a recent phenomenon, one can find variants in classical literature.

William Shakespeare used 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?"

Also in Act IV, Scene II of Titus Andronicus, Aaron taunts his lover's sons:

Demetrius: "Villain, what hast thou done?"
Aaron: "That which thou canst not undo."
Chiron: "Thou hast undone our mother."
Aaron: "Villain, I have done thy mother."

In popular culture

"Your mother" jokes became common in North American pop culture in the early 1990s. The Pharcyde's 1992 song "Ya Mama" echoed it.^[4] Mexican film Y Tu Mama Tambien's title is an equivalent usage in Spanish ("and your mother too"). There is also a television show Yo Momma featuring contestants "playing the dozens". The Australian hiphop outfit Butterfingers released a song called "Yo Mama" that made number 17 on the 2004 Triple J Hottest 100.^[5]

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 mom that is."

See also

• Fighting words
• Maledicta
• Taunt

References

External links

Look up your mum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Yo Momma - MTV television show involving the mother-insult style of insult comedy