Your Mom

In a war of Volleying Insults, insulting the opponent's mother is a useful snappy comeback. These insults come in a variety of forms:

  • The versatile "Yo' momma's an X!" (In the UK, substitute "yo' momma" with "yer mum", "yer maw" in Scotland, and "your ma" in Ireland. 'Ya mum!' in Australia).
  • The closely related "So's your mom!"
  • Old knock-knock joke:

"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Joe."
"Joe who?"
"JOE MAMA!"

  • Often used when playing The Dozens. The classic example begins "Yo' momma so fat, [insert fat joke here]."
  • "Your mother wears army boots!" The implication is that she must have got them by bartering sex with a soldier for clothes. This particular one, referring to women in poor villages who would put out in such a fashion, has become a Dead Horse Trope.
  • A Spear Counterpart is the classic "So's your old man!", which was popular in the early twentieth century but has fallen out of use nowadays.
  • For characters in the correct age demographic, substitute "Your wife."
  • If one feels the need to elaborate, there's this version from the '80s: "Your mom. Your dad. Your bald-headed grandma."

As always, The Other Wiki gives much detail in the traditional deadpan presentation.

A "Your Mom" joke was found baked into a cuneiform tablet from 1,500 BC. However the punchline is missing, and it is possible that it could be a case of I Banged Your Mom instead. Which means at least one of those two tropes is Older Than Dirt, and we don't know which.

Compare I Will Show You X, Lame Comeback, No, You, That's What She Said, I Banged Your Mom.

Be warned that seriously directing insults at someone's mother is generally not a good move, because Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas. Or if the character really does turn out to be the Son of a Whore then it might provoke more of a reaction than you were hoping for.

"Your Mom" insults work due to the Madonna-Whore Complex, which refers to how some people can only see a woman as a pure, sexless being or a depraved whore. Men tend to view their mothers as a part of the former category and implying that their mothers would have sex with someone who isn't their father puts her in the latter category.

Examples of Your Mom include:

Advertising

  • The Nerd Core bumper on G4 starring YTCracker, in which he states, "Mess with me you'll feel the wrath of Anon and Khan / We'll get that Rule 34 on Your Mom"


Anime & Manga

  • Goku, when attempting to get Uub (who was suffering from a massive dose of ring fright before his match with Goku) to fight by making him mad by insulting his family, says "Hey, yo mamma's so fat, cows moo at her!"
  • Canaan does this with Mino and Santana's mud-slinging match in the 5th episode, which eventually devolves into this sort of thing.


Comic Books

"Yo, why are they fighting?"
"They're claiming first dibs."
"On what?"
"Your mom, of course."
"... He's lucky I just took three Percocets."

  • A recent Spider Man comic sees a Let's You and Him Fight between Spider-Man and Deadpool degenerate into a gladiatorial battle of "Yo Momma" jokes (as in, they end up just standing in the middle of a basketball court firing zingers off at each other). After being pushed just too far by Spidey, Deadpool prepares to break out "Yo Mommageddon", a 'Yo Momma' crack he's honed so perfectly that it causes people to cry themselves to death (although in Hebrew it only makes people bite their own tongues off, as Deadpool learnt when he sold it to Mossad). He's just about to break it out when his beeper goes off, revealing that he's done for the day. He then cheerfully offers to buy Spidey a beer.
    • One of the kids who were watching the "fight" calls Deadpool out on it, claiming Deadpool was bluffing about the "Yo Mommageddon". Deadpool whispers HALF of the joke in the kid's ear, and he immediately starts crying.
  • In Ultimate Spider-Man, Spidey is fighting crime in a half-completed, bargain-basement version of his normal costume (the original was destroyed, and he didn't have a handy replacement.) He breaks up a mugging, and one of the crooks asked where his real uniform was. Spidey retorts, "Your mom's washing it for me." While beating them up, he admits that jokes like that are usually beneath him, but he's not exactly on his A-game.
  • Dilbert: Dogbert explains in "Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless" that, while insulting somebody's mother is impolite, "fathers are fair game." He illustrates this by rattling off a bunch of "your father is so dumb" jokes.
  • In ABC Warriors, during the Volgan War, Ro-Jaws provoked Mek-Quake into attacking him (thus saving the other Warriors) with a string of "Your mother" jokes. Blackblood tries to persuade Mek-Quake that, since they're all robots, none of them have mothers. It doesn't work. The greatest moment has to be this exchange:

Mek-Quake: (chasing Ro-Jaws) I will do unspeakable things to you!
Ro-Jaws: (running away) Last night I did unspeakable things to your mother!

  • In Scott Pilgrim, during Scott's fight with Matt Patel, Ramona's First Evil Ex-Boyfriend, Scott tries to rattle Matt by asking about the time Matt and Ramona dated.

Scott: C'mon, man, dish! Got any embarrassing stories?
Matt: Y-your mom is an embarrassing story!

    • High School Flashback - The evil Benvi Tech boys kidnaps Kim P.

Scott goes to rescue her. Final Boss is Simon Lee.
Simon Lee: So, this is the best St. Joel can muster?
Scott: That's not what your mother said last night!

  • The Half a Life arc of Gotham Central revolved around the involuntary outing of Renee Montoya, who has already had to deal with being a Hispanic woman in the predominantly white male Gotham City Police Department. When it is revealed that she is also gay a lot of the other GCPD detectives, who dislike her and the Major Crimes Unit as a whole because of their basic honesty in the highly corrupt police force, begin insulting her even more. Renee, however, has never been one to just take the abuse when other people decide to dish it out.

Detective Lowe: You're probably in a hurry to get home to your little lady or whatever you call her, huh? The night time is the right time for love and all that, right?
Detective Montoya: That's what your mother tells me.

  • Cyberfrog volume "#0" (numbered out of order, of course, it's the origin story) is named "Yo Mama is a Alien".


Fan Works

  • In An Entry With a Bang!, the Clan Mechwarrior Brox takes a strong liking to mama jokes.
  • This Neverwinter Nights 2 fanfiction where Bishop insists that "Nobody can challenge "Your mom"" as a comeback and that it will catch on.
  • In this Cars/Transformers fanfic, during a battle at the Dinoco 400, Ramone is heard yelling at Starscream that "Your mother was a Cessna!".
  • This little gem gives us Spock's version of a maternal insult.
  • Manchester Lost has Adam use this twice. Both times against entities without mothers.
  • In Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, Madara's final attempt to defeat Ronan consists of making insults toward his mother, and Ronan does the same.


Film

The Priest: Who's "Jones"?
Spider: He's that guy who fucks your mother.

Dawn: Your mother sucks jelly babies in hell!
Jennifer: No she does not!
Dawn: All right... Your mother's a Biology teacher in Cheshire!

    • And by Ozzy Osbourne in a backmasked message in his song "Bloodbath in Hell," where he says "Your mother sells whelks in Hull." This is also a Take That against a lawsuit he had received for an Urban Legend of Zelda regarding an allegedly backmasked message in his album Blizzard of Ozz.
  • Used to great extent in The Monster Squad.
  • In Chinatown, Jake Gittes uses the wife variation to insult a cop:

Loach: What happened to your nose, Gittes? Somebody slammed a bedroom window on it?
Jake: Nope. Your wife got excited. She crossed her legs a little too quick, you understand what I mean, pal?

Ellerby: Go fuck yourself.
Dignam: I'm tired from fucking your wife.
Ellerby: How is your mother?
Dignam: Good, she's tired from fucking my father.

  • From Ghostbusters, when Walter Peck tries to have the 'Busters arrested:

Peck: HOLD IT! Officer, I want these men arrested! They are in direct violation of the Environmental Protection Act, and this explosion is a direct result of it!
Egon: YOUR MOTHER... (The rest of what Egon says dissolves into a fist-fight and a rare moment where he expresses actual emotion. It's assumed he said something to the tune of "Your mother's a violation of the EPA")

Taylor: By the way, saw your wife last night, hell of a dancer, you must be very, very proud. I mean that guy she was with, I'm sure he's a close personal friend and all. But tell me, what was he doing wearing her panties on his head? (Batter Pops Up) Uh-oh, that's it, I don't think this one's got the distance.

Guy: Would that I had known you when you were still capable of making bastards.
Godfrey: I knew your mother when she was making hers. Fortunately, you're too old to be one of mine.

  • Remember the Titans has a scene where the black players are telling Yo' Momma jokes about the white guys in the locker room, and the white guys take offense until one of them joins in, whereupon it's revealed that it's a form of bonding.
  • Y Tu Mama Tambien: The movie's title is this trope (usually translated "And your mama too!")
    • Unusually for this trope, the character who says it actually has had sex with the other's mother.
  • In Super Troopers one cop tests out a bulletproof cup and gets knocked down. When asked how he feels, he responds "Good enough to fuck your mother!"
  • Menace II Society: "I feel sorry for your mother." "What'chu say 'bout my mama?"
  • Baseketball example.

Kenny "Squeak" Scolari: Your mother's deaf...
Ed Tuttle: My mother's dead, you little twerp.
Kenny "Squeak" Scolari: I guess that why she didn't move around a lot.

"What are you here to see?"
"Your mother!"

  • The school counselor in Afterschool uses these jokes to break the ice.

Dr Virgil: How's your mother?
Robert: Okay I guess.
Dr Virgil: Do you know she has crabs so big I ride them to work?

Zao: "Who sent you?"
Jinx: "Your momma. She wanted me to tell you that she's real disappointed in you."

  • In the film Best Player, when Quincy tried to tell one of his adversaries he really loves her mother, it was taken for a provocation.
  • Anaconda:

British Guy: I could pay someone to kill you.
Ice Cube: I could kill you right now for free.
British guy: You and whose army?
Ice Cube: Yo' mommas.

Errol: Oi, fuckface, he wasn't asking you.
Turkish: "Fuckface." That's clever. I'll have to remember that next time I'm climbing off yer mum.

Detective Traxler: Well, how do I look?
Detective Vukovich: Like you've been dead for a week.
Detective Traxler: Yo mama.

  • In The Waterboy, during a football game, Bobby Boucher wishes an opposing player good luck before the next play, but that player rudely replies "I'll be playing with your mama tonight", making Bobby ominously mutter "62", his jersey number. During the play, Bobby intercepts the ball, but idiotically gives it back to that player, who takes it for a touchdown to beat Bobby's team. Though Bobby roughhouses him anyway.
  • The extraterrestrials of Alien Nation had an insult that specified, "Your mother mates out of season." Though Sykes recognized the hostile intent, it didn't make him noticeably angry; his response was along the lines of, "Yeah, she does. So?"


Literature

  • Wild Bill Wharton in The Green Mile tries a "your wife" variety on a prison guard...who isn't married. He comes back that it was probably Wharton's sister he was thinkin' of.
  • In Stephen King's novella, The Body, there are several Your Mom insults, such as "Your mother blows dead rats!" Also, when Chris holds Ace at gunpoint:

Chris: Oh, why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more? I hear she loves the way you do it.
Ace:. I'll kill you for that. Nobody ranks my mother.
Chris: I heard your mother fucks for bucks. In fact, I heard she throws blowjobs for jukebox nickels. I heard -(interrupted by thunder)

    • Note that earlier, when one boy says something critical about his friend's father, this is considered a serious breach of etiquette, whereas taunts about mothers are understood to be kidding.
  • Happens in Thomas Pynchon's Against The Day when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria visits a black neighborhood in Chicago in the 1890s.

"Something about...your...wait...deine Mutti, as you would say, your...your mamma, she plays third base for the Chicago White Stockings, nicht wahr? A quite unappealing woman, indeed she is so fat, that to get from her tits to her ass, one has to take the 'El'! Tried once to get into the Exposition, they say, no, no, lady, this is the World's Fair, not the World's Ugly!"
"Um, Your Royal Highness? If we could just have a word--"
"It is all right! I know how to talk to these people! I have studied their culture!"

  • Invoked by Butler in the first Artemis Fowl book, where he uses a mother insult to lure some dockworkers out.
  • In the Star Trek Expanded Universe novel I, Q, the war between the Q Continuum and the M Continuum started when one of the M, after a discussion of why there needed to be a war which nobody could get worked up about, suddenly said "Your mother!"
    • Made even more hilarious by the fact that, since both the Q and the M are omnipotent, immortal beings, none of them actually had mothers!
  • In Jessica Layne's Knight Moves, a Middle Ages knight is challenged by stereotypical black Philadelphia gangsters to a "Yo Mama" contest.
  • Harry Potter uses it against Malfoy in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, after Malfoy insults Ron's mother. "You know your mother, Malfoy? That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"
    • He also pulls one on Seamus after Seamus calls Harry a lying liar who tells lying lies that lie.
    • Marge throws one in Harry's direction early on in Prisoner of Azkaban. It doesn't end well, and Harry himself is struck with guilt until Cornelius Fudge tells him that was OK due to the circumstances going on at the time (specifically, an escaped alleged murderer/magic user on the loose in Mother England).
  • A Portrait of Yo Mama as a Young Man takes this trope and Crosses the Line Twice with it.
  • In Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, we're told that in some troll dialects, which rely a lot on guesture, extending one's hand to a troll is "a very bad remark about his mother". Apparently, it was some time before humans and trolls worked this miscommunication out.
  • Kevin teases the schoolyard bully Bertram with one of these in The Eyes of Kid Midas. Bertram is not amused--Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas.
  • In The Wise Man's Fear, an ordinary mercenary attempts to pick a fight with Adem mercenary Tempi by suggesting that Tempi's mother was a whore. This falls rather flat as A: Tempi is unfamiliar with the Aturan word for "whore" and B: Ademic culture does not have a stigma against prostitution.
    • Once he's been made to understand what the other man said, he thanks him for speaking so kindly about his mother.
  • This is the insult that sparks the whole plotline in Scaramouche.
  • Your mother is a tortoise is made into a running gag in Much Fall of Blood.

Live Action TV

"You're lookin' a little slow tonight, Dennis."
"That's cuz your momma kept me up all night!"

  • Star Trek: Enterprise pulled this in the Mirror Universe episode. During an interrogation of a Tholian, Hoshi interprets one of his defiant remarks as "something about your maternal ancestor".
    • One of the most offensive Klingon insults is "Hab SoSlI Quch!", which translates to "Your mother has a smooth forehead!"
  • House has a (deliberately) cringe inducing moment when Chase attempted a Yo mamma joke. It was horrific.
    • Youtubage! (Probably not brain safe. Horrific is right.)
    • Used subtly (well, as subtle as a your mom joke can be used) in later episode.

Foreman:How many of those have you had today?
House: I don't know. Is "your mother" a number?

  • MTV had an entire show based around this trope, appropriately titled Yo Momma and hosted by Wilmer Valderrama (yes, THAT Wilmer Valderrama).
    • In years before that, they would include ad bumpers of New Yorkers trash-talking each other in various settings (usually at one of NYC's famous public basketball courts).
  • Angel

Angel: "Another minute, and I would have given them everything. The ring, the scroll, your mom... how is your mom, anyways?

Puck: Hey ankle grabber! I had sex with your mother. No, seriously. I cleaned your pool, and then I had sex with her on your bed. Nice Star Wars sheets.

Kearin: All you FOBS have man boobs!
Jonah: Yeah, well ya mum has man boobs!

  • In an episode of The IT Crowd, Moss has been bullied and Roy attempts to help him stand up for himself by roleplaying:

Roy: Nice glasses!
Moss: Not as nice as your mum's glasses!
Roy: Still a little bit complimentary, but it's getting better.

  • In Supernatural's 6.07 "Family Matters", Christian Campbell catches Dean snooping around Samuel's office. As Dean comes up with a weak excuse about needing to call someone in privacy:

Christian: Ah. Samuel's locked office. Pretty private. Who you calling?
Dean: Your wife. Let her know I'm not gonna make it over tonight.

Kid: Slaphead!
Peter Dickson: Yeah? Well, your mum didn't seem to mind!

  • Thirty Rock: "What's the difference between your mum and a washing machine? When I dump my load in a washing machine, it doesn't follow me around for a week afterwards!"
    • Followed by Jack's rather surprising one when he asks Lemon to go to a fancy royal birthday celebration with him.

Liz Lemon: Okay I'll do it, but I won't like it.
Jack Donaghy: That's what your mom said last night. Booyah.

Trebek: This is the sound a doggy makes.
Sean Connery: Moo.
Trebek: That is incorrect.
Sean Connery: Well that's the sound your mother made last night!
Trebek: ...We would have accepted "bow wow" or "ruff".
Sean Connery: Ah, rough! Just the way your mother likes it, Trebek!

    • or:

Sean Connery: It's been a long time Trebek.
Trebek: Not long enough.
Sean Connery: That's not what your mother said last night!

    • Also played with in the "Mother joke of the day" on the Talk Show parody I'm Chillin.
    • Jeopardy! itself had a category called "Your Momma!" on 12/16/2010, which brought laughter the first time a contestant picked it. The exact wording didn't help...

Contestant: Alex, I'll take "Your Momma!" for $400.

Barney: Whoa, Ted, that thing you're packing is way too big to fit in that box.
Ted: Yeah, that's what your mom said.
Barney: How dare you!
Ted: No, she actually said that.
Barney's Mom: (walking in) Oh, dear, I thought I told you, that's just not going to fit in there.

Al: Any last words, punk?
Gang member: Yeah, your wife's good in bed!
Al: So, you're a liar, too! (punches him)

    • Bud and Kelly will often insult each other with barbs along the lines of "Eat Mom's cooking/Smell Dad's shoes". And have no problems saying it in front of their parents.
  • A recurring sketch on In Living Color had a Game Show called "The Dirty Dozens," in which the host would supply the first part of the insult, and the contestants would ring in to finish it. For example:

Host: (deadpan) "Yo mama so hairy..."
("T-Dogg" buzzes in)
Host: T-Dogg
"T-Dogg": Yo mama so hairy, Big Foot be takin' pictures of her.

    • Subverted when some of the categories don't lend themselves well to the joke: i.e. "Yo' momma so good at math ..."
    • Later in the series they made "spinoff" versions such as Wheel of Dozens and Family Dozens.
  • The dirty dozens are Serious Business for Mo and Marcus of Smart Guy, who treat it like a martial art, even bowing before and after a match. Hilarity Ensues when they attempt to instruct Marcus' little brother TJ, the titular smart guy.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
    • In "The Way of the Warrior", Klingons attempt to insult Odo in Klingon, and Garak replies with "Actually, I'm not sure Constable Odo has a mother."
    • This exchange in "The Siege"

Bashir: Quark, leave it!
Quark: I can't leave it, it's all that I have. My personal mementos, my family album...
Bashir: It's full of gold-pressed latinum, and you know it.
Quark: ...Who told you?
Bashir: Your mother did, the day you were born.
Quark: NEVER-MAKE-FUN-OF-A-FERENGI'S-MOTHER. Rule of Acquisition Number 31!

    • In the EU, the full rule is "Never make fun of a Ferengi's mother - insult something he cares about instead." That said, Quark does care about his mother more than most Ferengi.
  • In one episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Kirk has to try and snap Spock out of the influence of mind-altering spores by making him angry:

Kirk: "What can you expect from a simpering, devil-eared freak whose father was a computer and his mother an encyclopedia."

  • Doctor Who:
    • In "The Vampires of Venice", Amy's fiance Rory, attempting to draw the Monster of the Week away from Amy, tells it "The only thing I've seen uglier than you is your mum!". The monster's reaction cues an Oh Crap look.
    • Kind of subverted in "The Girl in the Fireplace". When the Doctor (who is probably drunk) confronts the clockwork robots, he says "You're Mr Thick Thickity Thick-Face from Thick Town, Thickainia... and so's your dad."
    • "The Runaway Bride": Donna and the Doctor are stuck in the middle of nowhere, and are trying to take a cab back to the church. Eventually they realize neither of them has any money. The cabbie dumps them out and all we hear is Donna scream, "And that goes double for your mother!"
  • Phyllis uses this to get one over on Gene in Life On Mars.

Gene: Serves you right for staying up all night rutting with that new fella of yours. D'you let his guide dog watch?
Phyllis: His guide dog's giving your mam one. From behind. (Sam smirks)
Gene(to Sam): Whatever 'appened to all the classy birds?

  • In the Stargate SG-1 fifth season episode "Red Sky", O'Neill and Jackson recount how a particular negotiation with the Asgard went south:

O'Neill: ...And after that, I kind of lost my temper.
Hammond: What exactly does that mean?
Jackson: Let's just say Jack made a reference to Freyr's mother.

  • In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon gets in on the Yo Mama action twice.
    • When attempting to trash talk before a bowling match

"You bowl like your mother, unless she's a competent bowler, in which case you bowl nothing like her"

    • And trash talking before a Robot Wars style battle

"Also, I'm given to understand that your mother is overweight. Now of course if that is a result of a glandular condition and not sloth and gluttony, I withdraw that comment."

  • On one episode of the 60s Batman TV series, a villain (I think it was Shame) taunted Batman with, "Your mother wears army boots!" To which Batman responded, "Why yes, she does... and she finds them quite comfortable!"
  • Fresh Prince of Bel Air: Phillip Banks had an excellent response to this, in a scene that is Papa Wolf, Crowning Moment of Awesome, and Crowning Moment of Funny in one shot.
  • Smart Guy had Marcus and Mo teaching TJ to do the Dozens as a method of countering a bully who is mocking his ear size after his attempt at ignoring the bully failed outright. Although it was initially successful, it ended up backfiring on him when one of TJ's "Yo Momma" jokes (well, technically "Yo daddy", but still), "Hey, yo dad's so ugly that he ended up arrested for mooning", turned out not only to be very much true, but was also the bully's Berserk Button, as apparently he has to become the man of his household to fill in the void of the father's jailtime, the stress relating to it and craving for attention as a result acting as the very reason why he often has to bully others.
  • Golden Girls had this a few times in an episode. Made funnier by how in a second scene it was Sophia, Dorothy's mom, about to say the line.

Dorothy: Now are there any questions?
Kid: Yes, Ms. Zbornak, what does Joe have to say about all this?
Dorthy: Joe who?
Kid: Joe Mama!

  • One episode of Castle: Ryan and Esposito, two extremely close friends, are captured by the Big Bad. Ryan is tortured while Esposito is Forced to Watch. Esposito says he can't stand it anymore, and tells the Big Bad: "Listen to me. You're too late. The cops already know everything about... me and your mom." Then he starts cracking up.
  • In El Chavo del Ocho, whenever Dona Florinda slaps Don Ramón for something she thinks he did or tried to do, she usually tells him to do it to his grandmother. If El Chavo is around, he usually asks Don Ramón something about said grandmother. Feeling offended by the question, Don Ramón hits El Chavo and usually comments something about his grandmother as the sole reason he won't hit Chavo a second time. Example:

Doña Florinda: Next time go act like a clown with your grandmother!
Chavo: Don Ramón, your granny likes the circus?
Don Ramón: TOMA! (hits Chavo) And I won't hit you twice only because my granny was a trapeeze artist...

    • Dona Florinda's attitude is somewhat justified by the fact she and Don Ramón's grandmother are acquaintances and don't get along.
  • In Home Improvement, Tim Taylor often utilized this trope on his "Tool Time" co-host, Al Boarland. In the episode where Tim dreamt about an alien encounter and then during a show about roofing (while speculating that Al may be an alien):

Tim Taylor: Your mother is so large, she might end up being your mothership. (Al Boarland then proceeds to attempt to chase and presumably attempt to beat up Tim for that remark as Tim leaves the set, the only thing stopping Al being the harness that's keeping him on the "roof.")

In another episode:
—Tim Taylor: Your mother is so large, she has her own zip code.
  • Averted in Welcome Back, Kotter, when Kotter contrasts the Dozens with the "modern" (1970s) style of insult-duelling starting with the beginning of a classic "Your momma..."

Barbarino: Hey, say whatever you want about my dad or myself, but you don't talk about my mother! That woman's holy.

  • M*A*S*H - Winchester is angry with Hawkeye and B.J. and stops talking. The two try to goad him out of his silence, saying to him "Your mother wears very expensive combat boots!" and very nearly getting him to crack with "Your parents voted for Roosevelt. Four times!"
    • This exchange in the mess tent between Burns and Houlihan, post-breakup:

Burns: This place is a mess. Hey, I made a joke!
Houlihan: So did your parents.

  • WKRP in Cincinnati - Herb reluctantly buys a painting at a charity sale to score points with the boss - Bailey likes it and says so, and he gives it to her. Later he hears it may be worth a fortune and tells her he wants it back, saying "I meant 'It's yours' like a figure of speech, like 'I love you' or 'So's your mother!'" When she won't give it back he tells her "I'm very disappointed in you." She looks conciliatory and says "Herb? [flatly:] So's your mother."
  • In an episode of Dark Angel, when Alec confronts a gang of steelheads who are monopolizing the steroid black market he's trying to break into, a British steelhead named Eddie asks what he needs five hundred dollars for.

Alec (in British accent): Actually, I need it for a ride on your mum.

  • CSI: The owner of a brothel that is a crime scene gets annoyed when Nick won't speed up the search to let him reopen the rooms and comes out with the unusual gem "Your mother sleep with Azerbaijani!"
  • Played with in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", when Santa greets a Martian family, and the Bots start quipping, "And so's my dad. And so's your dad! And so's your mom! And your sister swims out to troop ships!"
  • Community: Used in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.

Stormtrooper: Who are you?
Pierce: Your mother's lover. [shoots]

  • During an episode of Hill Street Blues, when peace talks between two street gangs broke down, one of the gang leaders shouted at the other, "I kissed your mother five times!"


Music

  • And from Styx's concert video Caught in the Act, taking place in a prison full of robot guards: 'Hey, Roboto! Yer mudda was a Toyota!'
  • "Yo Mama" by Butterfingers: "Yo mama's on the top of my things to do list!"
  • This Fatty Spins song.
  • The D&D song, only in the "Live at the El Rey" version, contained the following lyrics at the very end.

Lynch/Tyke: We put a spell on thee!
Will: You guys are too much for me. *laughs*
*beat*
Lynch/Tyke: That's what yo' momma said last night! It's D&D...

  • From Whose Line Is It Anyway, one session of Hollywood Director had Colin "ordering" his "actors" to redo the scene in Yo Momma jokes.

"We're not that big on Yo Momma jokes in Canada..." "Yeah, we go 'Eh Momma'..."

"So be kind to your mother
Though she may seem an awful bother
And the next time she tries to feed you collared greens
Remember what she does when you're asleep!

  • "Your Mama Don't Wear No Socks" was a popular summer camp song. I saw her when she took them off!
  • The Norwegian metal band Solefald has a Your Mom-joke in their song "Third Person Plural".
  • "Your Mama Don't Dance" by Loggins & Messina.
  • Your Mother Should Know by The Beatles becomes hilarious when interpreted as this.
  • The MC Hawking song "The Dozens".
  • The Shad song "Real Game", about race in basketball, begins and ends with a short skit of friends playing an NBA game with each other. After the game, the insults get petty, including "Your mom can't dunk!" the standard response being to defend one's mother's honor, the reply is "My mom can dunk, okay?! ... Well, she can touch rim still."
  • In the wake of 9/11, Ray Stevens released "Osama — Yo' Mama".
  • The Snaps album featured a number of comedians and hip-hop artists telling these jokes.


Newspaper Comics

  • Garfield has several G-rated versions:
    • When Garfield stands on the talking scale:

Scale: Let me put it this way... Have you ever considered a career as a river barge?
Garfield: Your mother was a blender!
Scale: That hurt.

    • When he does his act on the fence, he tells his audience: "All you your mothers wear army boots!"
      • He said this to a dog once, who merely walked away thinking "He's lucky Mom was in the military."
    • Jon tries to train Garfield to be an "attack cat", and makes a dummy from him to practice. When he orders "Attack!", Garfield tells the dummy: "Your mother wears combat boots!"
    • When Garfield is a bad mood, he shouts to a bunch of dogs: "All your mothers wear flea collars!" which gets him beaten up.
    • Garfield barks something to a chained dog, who gets really mad. Garfield explains that it meant "Your mother has fleas".
  • In one of the rare occasions in U.S. Acres where Booker achieves some sort of victory against the worms, he looked into a hole, which Booker then plugged with a cork. Booker then yelled, calling the worm's mother a "garden hose". As Booker expected, the worm hit its head at the cork while trying to return to the surface to respond to the insult.
    • In a later U.S. Acres story, a worm told Booker his mother swam after garbage scows. Booker reacted by trying to go after the worm, who then retreated itself into a hole where Booker got stuck. Then Orson, whom Booker affectionally calls "Mom", showed up wearing a swimsuit and telling Booker to hurry up because the garbage scow was coming down the creek. Booker groaned in frustration.
    • Feeling bored, Wade told Cody his mother had fleas so Cody would chase him away.
  • One FoxTrot strip has Jason and Marcus trash-talking each other before a test with "your momma" lines. This strip led to the name of one of the compilation books, Your Momma Thinks Square Roots Are Vegetables.
  • Caesar from The Boondocks is a walking encyclopedia of this trope.
  • Curtis is always getting these from the strip's two bullies, Derek and "Onion".


Professional Wrestling

  • During Repo Man's entrance at the Wrestlemania X-7 Gimmick Battle Royal:

Bobby Heenan: Last week he repoed his own car.
Gene Okerlund: About five years ago, he got my mother-in-law.
Bobby Heenan: About four years ago, everybody got your mother-in-law.


Radio

  • Alice does this in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show when she runs out of intelligent comebacks, some of which are dated if one doesn't know the pop culture reference. Others are more general like:

"Ah, your mother drinks warm beer!"


Theater

Painter: You're a dog.
Apemantus: Thy mother's of my generation: what's she, if I be a dog?[1]

Launcelot: Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not; that you are not the Jew's daughter.
Jessica: That were a kind of bastard hope, indeed! so the sins of my mother should be visited upon me!
Launcelot: Truly, then, I fear you are damned both by father and mother; thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.


Video Games

Ellis: Hey Nick, what kinda car you drive?
Nick: Your mom's car.
Ellis: See, that was just uncalled for.

    • Upon seeing a Spitter, Ellis sometimes calls, "It's Nick's mom!"
  • Ezio uses a variation to make a snappy comeback in Assassin's Creed II.

Vierri: Are you afraid to handle things yourself?
Ezio: Your sister seemed quite satisfied with the "handling" I gave her.

Mr. Monkey: Ahhh! Damn it! Y-You're just a big loser! I'm able to skip the rock as many times as I want! So there! Ha-Ha! Loser! Moron! Idiot! Your mum wears combat boots!

  • In Neverwinter Nights 2, a female character can respond to Bishop's opening suggestion that she go back to whatever brothel she came from with "Good idea. I'll say hello to your mother while I'm there, shall I?"
  • In the Leliana's Song DLC for Dragon Age: Origins, Tug and Sketch's sniping produces this gem when they're about to climb through a window:

Sketch: Tight fit for Tug.
Tug: Eh, that's what your mother said.

  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door did a variation, where Grubba told the Iron Adonis Twins' that Mario was talking trash about them (hint: he's not), and one of the trash talks also had them being offended due to the fact that their mom had an outie.

Grubba: Hyuk hyuk! Your challenger is real confident, boys! Yep, he's talkin' trash... "Iron Adonis Twins?" he said. "More like Paper Dog-Face Bros.! ...And they stink!" And then he said: "I bet they just play video games an' cry when they lose!" Um, yeah, and then he said... "Outie belly buttons run in their family! Stinkwads!" ...And so on. Yep.
Iron Cleft #1: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!? How does he know Mom has an outie? That jerk! We're gonna blend you up into a smoothie, pal! And then we're gonna drink ya! Oh, and one more thing... Only smelly stinkwads call other people stinkwads! Understand, stinkwad?
Iron Cleft #2: Simmer down there, Bro. You! Stinkwad! You're gonna regret opening your yap, pal! See these bods? Solid iron. See these spikes? Yeah, they penetrate any substance. So, basically, what I'm telling you is that whatever you try will be completely useless. Think that over in the very short time you have left with a functional brain.

  • SimAnt had a few, if you turned on dialogue. If memory serves, one of them was "your mother was a termite!"
  • In one of the party conversations in Dragon Age Origins:

Sten: Dwarf.
Oghren: What?
Sten: Stop tripping me.
Oghren: Stop tripping yourself!
Sten: If you were significant enough to notice, I wouldn't step on you.
Oghren: Oh, well... your mother!
Sten: ...That was disappointing. I expected better from you.
Oghren: Sorry, I was in a rush.

  • Dragon Age 2 had an inadvertant one after Bartrand betrayed the group in the Deep Roads. Varric had this to say about his brother.

Varric: I swear, when I find that son-of-a-bitch - sorry mother - I will kill him!

  • In RuneScape's "A Clockwork Syringe" quest, one of the insults you can use while interrogating a zombie pirate is "Yo momma has enough chins for 99 range!" [2]
  • Typing "UR MOM" in Scribblenauts gives you a Zombie.
  • In The Secret of Monkey Island, "So's your mother" is one of the options in Insult Swordfighting that won't win, although it only appears during the training scene with Captain Smirk. Also, if you let the Fettucini Flying Brothers argue over who gets to go in the cannon:

Alfredo: Your mother wears combat slippers!
Bill: Leave our mother out of it! Get in the cannon!

    • In The Curse of Monkey Island, one of René Rottingham's rhyming swordfight insults is "Your mother wears a toupee!", to which Guybrush can respond, "Oh, that is so cliché", which is the same response to a pirate's "En garde! Touché!"
    • In Tales of Monkey Island, Guybrush gives us, "Your mama's so fat, it's probably a serious health risk for her. She might want to visit a physician about that."
  • In Shining Wisdom: "Your mama's so ugly she looks out the window and gets arrested for moonin'!"
  • One of the conversation choices in The Sims 3 (and also The Sims Social and The Sims Medieval) involves calling a Sim's mom a llama.
  • In Fable III during the "Gnomes Are Evil!" quest, Lionel the gnome interjects "Your mother!"
  • Vega Strike Dialogue Tree has one of aliens' attempts to insult the (human) player going like this:

Rlaan pilot: Your female ancestor was promiscuous! Wait... how is that not a compliment?

  • Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Deadpool yells "YO' MAMA!" at random when he executes his standard strong attack.
  • In Sly 3, Bentley has to goad Muggshot into a fight as part of a plan. The one thing that'll make him reconsider fighting a wheelchair-bound turtle? Making a nasty comment about his mother.


Web Animation

Palmer: "Do you like working for us, Mr. Matthews? Does the job satisfy you?"
Raimi: (Inner Monologue) "About as much as your mom did last night."

Phil: My mom just called.
Joel: Your mom just called.
Phil: ...excellent comeback.
Joel: (oblivious) I know.

    • In one episode, the two girl characters agree that Your Dad jokes will never catch on.
    • When Joel actually ends up going out with Phil's mom, Jessica, he discovers that Your Mom jokes don't make sense anymore.

Joel: Your mom's a world. She's my world. I guess "Your Mom" insults pack less of a punch now.

Web Original

  • Zero Punctuation: "Yes, it's short, but it's cheap and comes with lots of fun extras, not unlike your mum."
    • And as a sequel to that, the zinger in the next video said: "Contrary to claims made in the previous video I have not in actuality fucked your mum because damn that shit is nasty, yo"
    • "By the way, it's okay to swear on the internet. Your mum isn't likely to read it. I know, because she's too busy being fucked. By me."
    • "... I doubt I would find it easier to get around if I were six feet wide and constantly farting carbon monoxide, I don't know how your mum does it."
    • "Sexy and exciting people, like your mum..."
    • "Sandboxes are by definition looser than your mum on a jet engine."
  • Dragonball Z Abridged:

Frieza Goon A: "Damn man, you couldn't hit the broad side of a space-barn!"
Frieza Goon B: "Yeah well that's only because I'm too busy hitting the broad side of YOUR MOM!"

    • Cui and Vegeta do this back and forth. Vegeta does it to Cui, who responds that his species reproduces asexually ('Gross. Out of my way'). Cui then does it to Vegeta in the same ep as the first example.

"My mother's dead."
"I know."

      • Which is then chillingly referenced by Freeza during his fight with Vegeta:

Freeza: "Well, Vegeta, time to send you crying home to mommy."
Vegeta: (in extreme pain) "My... mother's... dead."
Freeza: "I know."

    • It also happens in Bardock The Father of Goku.

Bardock: "We need to raise an army, and-"
Random Saiyan: "Your mom's an army!

Tucker: Freelancers are independent, they're not red or blue. They're just guns for hire, who'll fight for whoever has the most money.
Caboose: Like a mercenary.
Tucker: Right. Or like your mom, when the rent's due.
Caboose: ...oh, that's funny.
Tucker: Yeah, you didn't think that was too obvious?
Caboose: No no, no no, that was, that was good.

Serena: Come on, Amy, let's go stalk him!
Amy: But I'm trying to study!
Serena: So's your mom!
Amy: Serena, that doesn't make any sense.
Serena: Shut up!

Yami: I said you were cute. It's a compliment! Geez!
Yugi: {angrily} Your face is cute!
Yami: Yup.

    • Also in Episode 47:

Kaiba: Hey, uh, question. Are you just going to paraphrase old movies and TV shows at us, or are you actually going to DO SOMETHING?
Noah: ...Your mother.

Nostalgia Critic: Any chance you have Sean's number?
Cinema Snob: Your mom has Sean's number.
Nostalgia Critic: Shut up.

Chris: Mr. Critic, what are your plans now for this new glorious nation?
Doug: ......I'm doing your mother.

Neil and Nathan: We did not get along
Nathan: I thought Neil was given far too many songs
Neil and Nathan: Both threw insults at each other
Neil: Told you how I f#!ked your mother...

Matt: Oh great, caves. I love caves.
Pat: Don't you like dark, moist places?
Matt: I like your mom's dark moist place.
Pat: How about I kill you?
Matt: How about no?

(After Pat is poisoned and killed)
Pat: Aw, fuck!
Matt: Ahaha! Yeah, you're a real combat specialist!
Pat: Your mom is a fucking combat specialist.
Matt: What?
Pat: With my dick.

  • Left 4 Farts has the gang jokingly exchanging Your Mom insults on a building's roof while Francis is dangling over the edge of said roof. Zoe finally comes up with this gem:

Yo' mama, is like a brick: she's dirty, she's flat on both sides, AND she always gets laid by Mexicans!

  • Strong Bad apparently attempted one in response to an annoying request from a Polish viewer, but it comes out as "Your mother is the speed limit" ("Twoja matka jest ograniczenie prędkości"). Oddly enough, this isn't a case of My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels because both the email and his response are typed in English and translated by a voiceover.
  • There is a channel on YouTube, appropriately named Yomama, dedicated to animating just about every Yo Mama joke in existence. New videos are posted every Monday and Friday, and our host is a lovably obnoxious blonde Gaston Expy named Brody. It's all quite entertaining, actually...


Webcomics

Boy: Well, your mom turns every conversation into a "your mom" joke and it's becoming unbearable.
Girl: I'm serious; I can't take this anymore. I'm leaving.
Boy: ...That's what she said!
Girl: Yes. Yes, it is.

    • Don't forget the alt-text: "Seriously, it's your mom jokes or me." "Then I, like so many men before me, must reluctantly choose your mom."
    • Also beautifully subverted in #502.
      • The XKCD writer/drawer is a genius for managing to turn a stupid Your Mom joke into a genuine Tear Jerker.
    • Another one in #639.
    • A rather eloquent one in #116.
    • #541 has one in the Alt Text.
    • And this one uses your mom to illustrate relative gravity.
    • And this one to explain the metric system (223 kg including cheap jewelry and makeup).
    • Well played.
    • Also this. God, Xkcd loves this trope!
      • It is fair to say that xkcd is not the first, or the last, to love your mom.
    • And here...
    • Mrs. Roberts has a habit of defacing the websites of people who tell "your mom" jokes to her daughter.
    • Black Hat Guy retorts to one in Open Mic Night.
    • And subverted in the second comic down from the right here.
  • The Last Days of Foxhound features this explanation of the Progression of Insults.
    • Ocelot and Liquid try to explain how 'your mother's a whore' is the highest insult in The Last Days of Foxhound, and why they couldn't just skip ahead to that.
      • Later, when Wolf and Ocelot realized they were flirting with each other, Wolf declared they must insult each other.

Wolf: Your mozer's a whore.
Ocelot: Thanks! Yours too.

        • Course, given Ocelots mother, she may wanna take that back.
    • And then there's this:

Mantis: I hear the blond one is Solid Snake's brother.
Ocelot: No kidding! Does he know that?
Mantis: Let's see...[reads mind] nope, doesn't have a clue.
Ocelot: Are you sure? Try probing a bit deeper.
Mantis: If I go any deeper I could cause serious damage.
Ocelot: That's funny- I said the same thing to your mother last night.
Mantis: Death Glare
Ocelot: In bed
Mantis: [Throws plant pot at Ocelot]

Ah -- go kees an hoctopoos. Oh vait, hyu mama already deed! Heh.

Oracle: ...who may have been a bit portly due to a glandular condition, but at least she didn't whore up the Afterlife when she died...

"And she said it was an example of things to come."
"Your mom is an example of things...to..."

Becca: I hear a lot of talk, but I don't see a lot of action!
Zoe: Your mother doesn't see a lot of action.
Bob: Oh, come on now. Fighting is one thing, but mother jokes? Aren't we a little old for that?
Zoe: Your mother's a little old for that.

  • In Captain SNES, Amon gets enraged when Megaman uses "Your Momma" as an insult. Which is strange, because Amon is a physical incarnation, and doesn't actually have a mother.
  • Homestuck:

<span style=" color:

  1. E00707;">TG: like mr president theres a meteor coming sir. oh yeah, how big is it? its the size of texas sir

<span style=" color:

  1. E00707;">TG: OH SHIT

<span style=" color:

  1. E00707;">TG: or, how big is it? its the size of new york city sir

<span style=" color:

  1. E00707;">TG: OH SHIT

<span style=" color:

  1. E00707;">TG: sir im afraid the comet is the size of your moms dick

<span style=" color:

  1. E00707;">TG: OH SNAP

Black Mage: Let me just stop you right there before I am honor bound to cut your face like an elven whore.
Thief: Hold on. Elven whore? Do I even have to tell you why that's so offensive to me?
Black Mage: Look, if your mother had made dresses, I would have called her a tailor instead.

Western Animation

  • In the Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode "Batmantis", Space Ghost discovers that Moltar has been kidnapped by a villain calling herself "Your Mother." Not "Mom," as in the Futurama character, but Your Mother.

Space Ghost: Not my mom, someone else's mom. Someone's sick and deranged mom!

  • Robot Chicken has a Star Wars skit in which the battle between Palpatine and Luke Skywalker was essentially a game of The Dozens with Star Wars-themed Yo Momma insults.

Luke: Your overconfidence is your weakness.
Palpatine: Your faith in your friends is yours!
Luke: (mumbling) Heh, faith in yo mama...
Palpatine: What was that?
Luke: I said, you mama so fat, Jabba the Hut said, "DAAAAAAAAAAAMN!"
Palpatine: Well, your mother's so ugly, she put the "Ug" in "Ugnaught"!
Vader:(Hood accent) OH, "YOU MAMA" FIGHT!
[cue stormtrooper audience, chalkboard, Emcee Vader, and hip-hop version of the Imperial March]

    • Also, the Rom the Spaceknight vs. Jim the Guy with a Giant Magnet:

Rom: You suck.
Jim: That's what your mom said.
Rom: She did not, my mom was a saint

  • South Park made an entire episode of Yo Momma (and Penn State) jokes in "The Poor Kid". No need to guess who on this one.

Principal: "You did a 20-minute song and dance number, with 47 "yo mama's so poor" jokes, followed by a finale with fireworks."

Moore: A lack of arts makes these kids 90% more likely to become depressed and appear in one of my films.
Brockmen: Where did you get that fact?
Moore: Your mother!

    • The bullies once attempted this on Bart, but it backfired:

Jimbo: (mockingly) Nice P Js Simpsons. Did your mommy buy them for ya?
Bart: Of course she did. Who else would have?
Jimbo: (beat) All right Simpson. You win this round.

    • Willie accidentally pulls one on himself while misreading Bart's lips. "What did you say about me mother?! For your information, her feet stink because she works in manure all day! But it's still the best damn Starbucks in Glasgow!" He apparently reads the same thing from a goat later in the episode.
  • King of the Hill:

Hank: Your mother is so ugly, uh, it affects her self-esteem.

Joe: That's not very nice, Brian.
Stewie: (ordering Brian) "Neither is your mother's ass."
Brian: (to Joe) Neither is your mother's ass.
Joe: Well, I'll give you that one.

Doyle: "Your mom has bad science."

Man: I'm telling ya I'm innocent!
Chow: Yeah, yeah. Save the drama for your mama.

Fry: Who was that guy?
Bender: Your Mama!
...
Bender: What's that big, ugly thing? A frog? A toad? Or your mama!

    • From the episode "Obsoletely Fabulous" when Bender escapes the modern world and lives on an island with outdated robots. One of them is a robot who can only talk by inserting cartridges of pre-recorded answers.

Bender: A working cartridge unit? Wow, you guys went obsolete years ago.
Cartridge unit rummaging through his bag of cartridges, picks out one titled "Snappy response" and inserts it
Cartridge unit: Your mother.

    • Also related is this exchange from "Time Keeps on Slipping":

Leela: I don't know how you did it, Fry, but once again you screwed up. Now all the planets are gonna be cracking wise about our mommas.
Hermes: I'm just glad my fat, ugly mama isn't alive to see this.
Professor Farnsworth: Enough about your promiscuous mother, Hermes. We've got bigger problems.

    • Fry inadvertently does it when Zoidberg gives him a physical, asking Fry to open his mouth and say some unintelligible alien phrase. Fry botches it.

Zoidberg: What? My mother was a saint! Get out!

  • Ren and Stimpy had an episode the twosome was trying to break into a prison and after Ren had a tirade against the warden, he pops from atop the wall, shakes his fist angrily and declares: "Yer momma!" in a completely deadpan way.
  • In the Hulk episode of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, the Thing tries to get Bruce Banner angry by saying "Yer momma's so ugly..." before Bruce tells him that won't work. But when he does change, he goes after Ben for it.
    • The same gag is used in Wolverine Vs The Hulk, with Logan saying "Yer momma wore army boots!"

Hulk: And Hulk's mother wore sensible shoes!

Hansel & Gretel: Ah, your mother rides a vacuum cleaner!

  • Also used in the 1949 cartoon Paying the Piper where Porky Pig (as the Pied Piper) is frequently insulted in this manner by a cat who's furious that all the rats have been removed from town.

Cat: Ah, your sister smokes corn silk!
Porky: My sister doesn't smoke corn silk, she works in a butcher shop and smokes hams!
...
Cat: Ah, your brother eats jelly beans!
Porky: Gee, I wonder how he knows so much about my family?

    • At the end of the cartoon, the cat resorts to stealing Porky's reward money to get back at him, but Porky manages to steal the money back and tells the cat "Ah, your father drives a p-p-pickle wagon!"
  • Megas XLR - When the Monster of the Week is Grrkek, "The Planet Killer"

Grrkek: I feel good enough to kill a thousand planets! Guess where I'm going to start?
Coop: Uh, I dunno, Your MOM'S HOUSE?!

Bully: Your mother wears army boots!
Huey: Uhh, yes!

  • In Sealab 2021, Quinn uses the "That's what your Momma said" variant on Capt. Shanks in "Let 'Em Eat Corn". When Shanks points out how unoriginal an insult it is, Quinn produces a tape recorder and video evidence; much to Shanks' infuriation, it turns out his Momma really did say that!
  • SpongeBob SquarePants once got a prank phone call and asked who is calling: "Joe Mama? Well, listen, Joe..."
  • In the American Dad episode "Great Space Roaster", Roger forces the members of the family to insult each other. Steve tells this to Francine: "Mom, you are not smart. I don't tell "yo mama's so dumb" jokes. I tell "my mama's so dumb" jokes.
    • Also when Bullock is giving a speech at the start of an episode...

Bullock: *a bit of paper flies past* Who threw that?!
Some random agent: YOUR MOTHER'S ASS!!

  • At the end of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "The Dressing", Carl answers his doorbell, eating a turkey drumstick, to find himself being threatened by an army of robot turkeys armed with laser socks. When one of the turkeys asks what he thinks he's eating, Carl replies "Your mother!" before getting blown up.
    • Also, at the start of another episode, Dr. Weird tries to convince his assistant Steve to chop off his head, in the hopes that the High-Pressure Blood will propel his corpse "all the way to Phoenix!"

Steve: Uh, what's in Phoenix?
Dr. Weird: Why, it's your momma, Steve! Get the axe!

    • In "Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future", the titular Ghost tells a rambling story about how Santa Claus originated as a paleolithic ape-man who enslaved alien elves to make toys for early hominid children. When he gets to the part about the elves trying to unionize, Frylock has completely lost the thread of the plot.

Frylock: Wait, who unionized?
Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future: Wouldn't you like to know? Probably your momma!

Sperg: You got something to say to me squirt?
Mandy: Your mother has a job and is a respected member of the community.
Sperg: No one talks about my mother that way!

    • Played straight and then subverted in another episode. Sperg actually has a Hot Mom.
  • In Regular Show episode Prank Callers, Mordecai and Rigby prank Pops by asking him to stay on hold for a call from Joe Mama. Of course, this being Pops, he actually stays on hold.
    • Invoked in another episode where Mordecai confronts Muscle Man over the latter's Catch Phrase "You know who else does x? MY MOM!" He tells Muscle Man that for the joke to work it should be "your mom", then gives three "your mom" jokes as examples.
  • In the DuckTales (1987) episode "The Robot Robbers" (yes, it was based on a Carl Barks story), Scrooge had Launchpad McQuack flying a helicopter with a banner reading "MA BEAGLE HAS FLEAS!"
  • In Pinky and The Brain, one of Brain's plans to Take Over the World required Pinky to make him angry in order to transform into a Hyde version of himself.

Pinky: Your mother, she's older than you!

  • Home Movies - Jason and Melissa want Brendon to know his mom is becoming a nuisance trying to work her way into the movie they're making - they confront him with "Your mother." He goes "Whoa!...is that like 'Yo mama'?"
  • In The Return of Jafar, Abu apparently did this to Iago, going by the fact that the latter angrily yells "Hey! Do I insult your mother?" back at him.


Real Life

  • A common Chinese insult is "肏你妈 / 操你媽" (cào nǐ mā, pronounced "tsao"), which literally means "fuck your mother".
  • In Russian, you can say "Ёб твою мать" (yob tvoyú mat'), which means exactly the same thing.
  • Similarly, the worst insults in Arabic (in Egypt at any rate) are kuss ummak and aḥḥa ( both figuratively "fuck!", "fuck that!", or "fuck you!" depending on context), literally translate to, respectively, "your mother's vulva" and...well...it's hard to explain. Let's just say that aḥḥa is derived from aḥḥ, which is the Arabic onomatopoeia for a woman having an orgasm...
  • An example from...the United States Senate? Yeah, sure, why not.

Sen. Kyl: I don't need maternity care. So requiring that on my insurance policy is something that I don't need and will make the policy more expensive.
Sen. Stabenow: I think your mom probably did.

  • Debatable in real life, because the comeback's been attributed to at least two different people: supposedly someone poked fun at a bald man by running a hand over his head and saying, "Your head feels just like my wife's butt!" Of course, that opened him up to the bald man stroking his own head and saying, "Why, so it does!"
    • This similar exchange, often considered one of the funniest incidents in sports:

Glenn McGrath: "Why are you so fat?"
Eddo Brandes: "Because every time I fuck your wife she gives me a biscuit!"

  • Ancient Germanic tribes, like the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse, opened all their battles by trading insults about their mothers.
  • In the late Roman Republic, Cicero was known for his wit. When a man named Metellus repeatedly asked him "Who's your father, Cicero?" he replied, "For you, your mother has made the question difficult to answer."
    • For a little context, Cicero was a novus homo (new man), meaning nobody in his family had ever been a senator or a member the Roman government before. Asking who his father was a way of insulting him and saying that Cicero was a nobody, which given how the Roman Republic was far more of a oligarchy than a modern republic, was a big insult and a big impediment to being taken seriously.
  • This Text From Last Night is a double example, combined nicely with Insult Backfire.
  • Profanity in Latin countries commonly centers around insulting other people's mothers. "Chinga tu madre," or "fuck your mother," is often considered one of the most potent insults possible in Mexican Spanish. "Tu madre es una puta" ("your mother is a whore") or "hijo de puta" ("son of a whore/bitch") has similar effects in many Latin American countries. In Puerto Rico it's sometimes shortened to "tu madre".
    • A common comeback is to say "tu jefa" (literally meaning 'your female boss', actually meaning 'your mom')
    • Note that this is used by women as well as men. It's especially funny when a woman calls her own son "un hijo de puta", which happens more often than you'd think. Any mother who want to cover her back while doing this usually adds anything something who implies that the insulted children are not hers, leading to the classical Spaniard retort "a ti te encontré en la calle" (I found you in the street).
    • The usual way to return an insult or to turn a statement into one is to use "tu abuela" or "su abuela" (your grandmother!).
    • Since the Philippines was a Spanish colony for a few centuries, the word "puta" has made it's way into the native tongue. "Putang ina mo!" (your mother is a whore!) is the most beloved of all curses used by everyday Filipinos, although the shorter "'tangina!" has since devolved into an expression of disbelief, among many other meanings.
    • Combine it with Country Matters and you have "el coño de tu madre" (your mother's cunt), the most effective insult in Venezuelan Spanish.
  • In Brazil (and possibly other Latin American nations), one category of people known for having their mothers insulted like that are soccer referees.
  • Crossing over somewhat with I Banged Your Mom: In an Australian Rules Football match between the St Kilda Saints and the Brisbane Lions, Brett Voss (playing for St Kilda) was lining up for a shot at goal when he heard someone call out "My old man fucked your mum!" He turned to see that the player who had said it was... his brother Michael, who played for the Lions.
  • According to Ashley Montagu's The Anatomy of Swearing, the phrase "Kwoy inam!" (literally: "Cohabit with thy mother!") is used as a mild diss in the Trobriand Islands. (It's more insulting to tell someone to screw his sister, and even worse to tell him to screw his wife.)
  • This might be Older Than Dirt: A cuneiform tablet from ancient Mesopotamia (ca. 1,500 BC) includes a number of baffling riddles, including:

"... of your mother, is by the one who has intercourse with her. Who is it?"

The answer was lost. Perhaps they didn't have enough clay for the complete list.
Worth noting, if the answer is:"Me", then this would fall into I Banged Your Mom instead.
  1. ↑ A bitch.
  2. ↑ "Chins" is a shortened nickname for chinchompas, a type of grenade weapon used for ranged training. It also means she's fat.
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