The Dozens

For other uses, see Dozens (disambiguation).

"Your father" redirects here. For the family member, see father.

The Dozens is a game that has its origins in African American slavery. The game originates from the devaluing and bargaining off of deformed or defective slaves in auction houses. This element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a competition of often good-natured insults. They take turns "cracking," "snapping," "ribbing" or insulting on—one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback. This is called playing the dozens or doin' the dozens, and sometimes dirty dozens. The dozens is a contest of personal power—of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility and mental toughness. Each putdown, each "snap", ups the ante. Defeat can be humiliating, but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect. The dozens is one of the contributing elements in the development of hip hop, especially the practice of battling.

The dozens can be a harmless game, or, if tempers flare, a prelude to violence. While the competition, on its face, is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions. But in its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of woofin' and signifyin', intended to defuse conflict nonviolently, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures.

"Yo mama", or "yo madra" are common, widely recognized argumentative rejoinder in African-American vernacular speech, is a cryptic and sometimes comical allusion to the dozens. An example would be, "Yo momma is so fat she follows Burger King on Twitter!"

History

The term the dozens is believed to refer to the devaluing on the auction block of slaves who were past their prime, who were deformed, aged or who, after years of back-breaking toil, no longer were capable of hard labor. These enslaved human beings often were sold by the dozen. In African American Oral Traditions in Louisiana, African American author and professor Mona Lisa Saloy writes:

“

The dozens has its origins in the slave trade of New Orleans where deformed slaves—generally slaves punished with dismemberment for disobedience—were grouped in lots of a 'cheap dozen' for sale to slave owners. For a Black to be sold as part of the 'dozens' was the lowest blow possible.[1]

”

Author John Leland describes an alternate etymology. He writes that it is a modern survival of an English verb—"to dozen"—dating back at least to the fourteenth century and meaning "to stun, stupefy, daze" or "to make insensible, torpid, powerless." The object of the game is to stupefy and daze with swift and skillful speech.^[2]

In 1929, the boogie-woogie pianist Speckled Red recorded a song entitled "The Dirty Dozen" which includes lyrics such as "I like yo' momma—sister, too/I did like your poppa—but your poppa would not do./I met your poppa on the corner the other day/I soon found out he was funny that way." (Kokomo Arnold, one of the most popular American blues musicians of the 1930s, also recorded much the same song under the title "The Twelves" in 1935.)

In 1959, Bo Diddley released "Say Man" on Checker 931 (with "The Clock Strikes Twelve" as the B-side),^[3] which featured him trading insults with his percussionist Jerome Green. The lyrics are not sung, but spoken conversationally over a musical background; this track has been described as a precursor of rap.

The sketch show In Living Color featured a recurring game show called The Dirty Dozens where contestants had to come up with insults.^[4]

In 2004, the Wayans Brothers, comedians Keenen Ivory Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and Damon Wayans, released The Dozens, a Dozens game for mobile phones. The movies White Men Can't Jump, 8 Mile, and House Party include exchanges of snaps. In addition to that, the MTV "reality-TV" series Yo Momma, which stars Wilmer Valderrama (of That '70s Show fame) is entirely focused around coming up with "the dozens" to say to an opponent.

In 2008, the hip-hop group Hot Stylz released the single "Lookin Boy", whose lyrics comprise a game of the dozens. In this song, the game is referred to as Lookin' Boy, as each insult is of the form "You are an <insult> lookin' boy."

The 2010 satirical Chinese machinima War of Internet Addiction includes a cross-cultural example of poetic verbal dueling using the form of classic Chinese couplets at the 7:24 mark.^[5]

In comedy

Richard Pryor referenced the dozens in his 1975 comedy routine That Nigger's Crazy saying that "white folks" did not know how to play.

Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy often based his stand-up routines on a reversal of the dozens, the purpose of which was boasting about one's own self rather than insulting someone else. Examples of this can be found in his known comedy albums, Comedian, Delirious, and the soundtrack to the film Eddie Murphy Raw. Other examples of the dozens in reverse, from other comedians, can be found in the cable TV program Def Comedy Jam, which was a production of Def Jam founder Russell Simmons's company.

George Carlin also referenced the dozens in his Occupation: Foole album while talking about his upbringing in Manhattan: "You wanna play the dozens?/Well the dozens is a game/But the way I fuck your mother/Is a goddamned shame."

See also

African American portal

• Avoidance speech (mother-in-law languages)
• Call and response
• Diss track
• Extempo
• Mother insult
• Roast (comedy)
• Sanankuya
• Wolf ticket

References

1. ^ Mona Lisa Saloy (1998). "African American Oral Traditions in Louisiana". Louisiana Folklife Festival booklet. http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creole_art_african_am_oral.html. Retrieved 2009-11-12. 
2. ^ Leland, John (2004). Hip, the history, p. 173. HarperCollins, ISBN 9780060528171
3. ^ Bo Diddley's Singles.
4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn5pbHxvChU
5. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUm8Jv_nUzs