About

"Your Mom" Jokes are insulting quips directed toward someone's mother, which typically depict her as hideous, overweight, stupid, promiscuous or poor.

Origin

Various maternal insults^[1] have been recorded throughout history. According to the Discover Magazine blog,^[2] the earliest known example was written on a tablet by a Babylonian student in 1,500 BCE. On the tablet, an incomplete riddle about a mother was discovered, translating as "of your mother is by the one who has intercourse with her. What/who is it?" In 2 Kings 9:22 in the Hebrew Bible, with the earliest texts found in the 9th century CE, the rebel Jehu greets King Joram by insulting his mother.

When Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" And he answered, "What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?"

In the play Timon on Athens, written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600s, the character Apemantus replies to an insult from a painter by comparing his mother to a dog:

Painter: "Y'are a dog."
Apemantus: "Thy mother's of my generation. What's she, if I be a dog?"

Spread

In 1991, the hip hop group The Pharcyde released their first demo, which contained a song titled "Ya Mama" featuring various jokes about a person's mother (shown below).

On April 5th, 1997, the PublicRadio^[4] blog published a compilation of "Yo Momma Jokes." On July 14th, the Sri Lanka tourism site InfoLanka^[3] published a list of "
assorted yo mamma jokes."

On January 4th, 2008, Xkcd^[6] posted a webcomic titled "your mom," in which a woman dumps her boyfriend for constantly making "your mom" and "that's what she said" jokes (shown below).

On February 25th, 2014, BuzzFeed published a listicle of "your momma" jokes^[5]. On July 2nd, YouTuber Yo Mama uploaded a video animating various "yo mama" jokes (shown below). In the first two years, the video gained over 53 million views and 61,000 comments.

Your Mom Jokes TikTok Trend

The hashtag #yomama on TikTok accumulates 921.7 million views of several videos featuring mom-related content. For instance, TikTok user @baby_simba47^[10] gathered some friends for a competition of the best "Your Mom" jokes. The post (seen below, left) uploaded on January 13th, 2021, garnered 7.7 million plays and 1.5 million likes in two years. TikTok user @meowmeowgoddess1989^[11] posted about the dangers of telling your mom jokes to strangers, showing a friend that was beaten after he insulted someone's mother. The video (seen below, right), uploaded on August 8th, 2022, received 4.3 million plays and 1.3 million likes in one year.

Your Mom Jokes In Other Languages

Your mom jokes are present in almost all languages. For example, the post (seen below, left) uploaded on Memeroid^[7] by DrowsyDrowsee on October 28th, 2021, shows an Angry Birds fanart with the overlay text about a moment when I'm left with no arguments in a fight and you say "tu mamá" as a closing answer to a discussion. The post received 202 votes on the platform in two years. The same joke was also used in the meme featuring The Rock, uploaded on June 21st, 2021, by sandoc_98^[8]. The post (seen below, right) received 230 votes in two years.

Brazilians use "your mom" jokes to poke their friends, mentioning their intelligence, body features and etc. For example, IFunny user @DTYP3IXE^[9] posted on November 14th, 2021, a picture of the Brazilian footballer Neymar with the overlay text in Portuguese that says "your mom told me you don't want to finish your meal." The meme received 15,200 likes and 379 comments in two years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References