Who Is Joe, And Why Shouldn't We Ask? The Classic 'Joe Mama' Bait And Switch Joke Explained

Who is Joe? He's Joe Mama.

Elementary schoolers since at least the early 1990s have told one of the most iconic types of joke in the English language: Yo Mama jokes. This kind of highly sophisticated humor, which usually makes fun of somebody's mother in a ridiculous and exaggerated way, has made its way into the internet age. And "Yo Mama" sounds a lot like "Joe Mama," meaning that a meme character has grown organically out of the joke.

Who Is Joe Mama?

Joe Mama is everyone and everything. He evades definition the way water evades a definitive shape, taking the form of any container that holds him. References to Joe Mama appear in older forms of media, including episodes of Golden Girls.

How Did Joe Mama Memes Start?

Joe Mama began featuring in memes around 2019, connected to the ligma meme, which involved a similar kind of joke.

Posters often paired a Squidward image with the "Don't ask who Joe is" warning. These memes verged into deep-fried and terminally ironic territory. It was the sort of joke that, from the beginning, was pretty stupid and schoolyard: but as it kept getting repeated, it gradually turned into something more bizarre. The joke was that people kept saying the joke, and kept making memes that were shamelessly and boldly stupid.

Somehow, it is often the most stupid memes that lead to the most sophisticated memery, the most meta posts, and the most niche rabbit holes.

Why Do People Post Joe Mama Memes?

It's a joke that keeps on giving. It's the sort of meme that lends itself to endless variation and will never not be recognizable or funny. For the same reason that kids repeat Yo Mama jokes on the playground, memers repeat the Joe Mama memes.

For the full history of the don't ask who Joe is / Joe Mama meme, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.