Yo Mamma
Your mother told me a joke. Now that wasn’t funny was it? What is a yo mamma joke anyways.
Apropos of Yo Mamma
All of these jokes rely on one central element: the mother. Now if you can find a way to insult somebodies mother, in some rare cases (that we’ll cover) your own mother, or another person’s mother’s promiscuity, then you have yourself a your mom joke!
Some Examples
Really the point of this post was to share some odd (funny even?) examples of yo mamma jokes, so here we go.
Arnold “The Brain” Rothstein
The year: 1928. The game: poker. The player: Arnold Rothstein, kingpin of the New York Jewish mob, and game fixer. In 1928, Rothstein set down to play a game of poker against Nate Raymond and Titanic Thompson, two gamblers famous for rigging games. After being mulcted tens of thousands of dollars he declared the game was rigged and refused to pay. Raymond got angry, and legend is murdered Rothstein.
On his deathbed, police questioned Rothstein in an attempt to confirm the identity of the man who shot him. What did he respond with: “Me mudder [My mother] did it.”
The gangster himself
Karoline Leavitt
Wait…this isn’t a political blog. Well that’s what you thought fool! Turns out Leavitt, our white house Press Secretary, is guilty of your mom jokes herself! A HuffPost reporter asked Leavitt why Trump chose a certain location to meet with Putin, and her response: “Your mom did.” Okay Leavitt.
Press secretarying in real time
Rabbi Eliezer
Not the Rabbi! This happened a while ago—almost two millennia ago in fact. A well respected Rabbi was listening to a member of his congregation read the from the Book of Ezekiel in the Tanakh. The congregation-member read, “Make known to Jerusalem [a woman in the Book of Ezekiel] her abominations.” The rabbi suddenly spurted out, “Before you examine the abominations of Jerusalem, go and examine the abominations of your own mother!”
Da Tanakh
Augustus
Not only was he the first emperor of the Roman Empire, he also led Rome into a time of relative peace called the Pax Romana. A figure like this, you may think, must have been an amazing leader. It turns out Augustus portrayed himself as a common man who could relate to the people.
One man came to Rome who look eerily like Augustus. So much so, Augustus demanded to meet him. Augustus asked the man, “Tell me, young man, was your mother ever in Rome?” (suggesting his mother had an extramarital affair with Augustus’ father), and the man replied, “No. But my father was here often.”
Where’s he pointing?
Conclusions
Yo mamma jokes are ancient, and can be found across cultures all over the world. Don’t just laugh them off as a commonplace insult, they hold a special part of global culture that almost no other concepts hold! Anyways, give your mother a kiss for me.
Goodnight,
Ilan Bernstein