Mother insult

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.cite journal
url=http://www.juggling.org/~conway/juggler/MAL.TXT
volume=11
journal=Maledicta
author=Andrew Conway
year=1994
title=You're ugly, your dick is small and everybody's afraid to fuck your mother: The Stand Up Comedian's Response to the Heckler
accessdate=2007-11-18] 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. [ cite journal
last=Ayoub
first=Millicent R.
coauthors=Barnett, Stephen A.
year=October-December
month=1965
title=Ritualized Verbal Insult in White High School Culture
journal=The Journal of American Folklore
volume=78
issue=310
pages=337–344
url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8715(196510%2F12)78%3A310%3C337%3ARVIIWH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D
accessdate=2007-01-05
doi=10.2307/538441] Insults based on obesity, incest, 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. [cite web
url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,1818319,00.html
title=The mother of all insults
publisher=The Guardian Unlimited
date=2006-06-12
accessdate=2006-12-06] Slang variants such as "yo mama", "yo mumma", "yer ma" or "your mum" 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 insultcite journal
url=http://www.juggling.org/~conway/juggler/MAL.TXT
volume=11
journal=Maledicta
author=Andrew Conway
year=1994
title=You're ugly, your dick is small and everybody fucks your mother: The Stand Up Comedian's Response to the Heckler
accessdate=2007-11-18] or an expression of defiance.

Use as a retort

"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 mom said to me last night.

:"Speaker 1": What's your dad doing?:"Speaker 2": Your mom!

:"Speaker 1": What do you wanna do next?:"Speaker 2": Your mom!

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 has her own zip code!

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!

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

:"Speaker 1": I told you to knock before you enter my room!:"Speaker 2": Your mom.

:"Speaker 1": What did you have for dinner last night?:"Speaker 2": Your mom.

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.

Another instance of non sequitur usage is when the phrase is used as a gag when filling out a form, as when an Albuquerque police officer filled out a criminal complaint listing the "State of Your Momma" as the plaintiff.

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".

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:wikisourcepar|The Life of Timon of Athens blockquote
"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:wikisourcepar|Titus Andronicus blockquote
"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. [cite album-notes
title=Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
albumlink=Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde
year=1992
bandname=The Pharcyde
format=back cover
publisher=Delicious Vinyl
location = Los Angeles, California] 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" (TV series) 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. [ cite web
url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/degeneration-y/2005/08/18/1123958161309.html
title=Degeneration Y
publisher=Sydney Morning Herald
author=Katrina Lobley
date=2005-08-19
accessdate=2007-03-02]

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."

ee also

*The dozens
*Fighting words
*Maledicta
*Taunt
*Chav
*"Yo Momma" (TV series)

References

External links

* [http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/yo_momma/series.jhtml Yo Momma] - MTV television show involving the mother-insult style of insult comedy