Maternal insult

A maternal insult (also referred to as a "yo mama" joke) 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 their mother. 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. Insults based on obesity, incest, age, race, 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. Slang variants such as "yo mama", "yo momma", "yer ma", "ya mum", "your mum" or "your mom" are sometimes used, depending on the local dialect. Insults involving "your mother" are commonly used when playing the dozens.

Although the phrase has a long history of including a description portion (such as the old "your mother wears combat boots", which implied that one's mother worked as a prostitute in the military), the phrase "yo mama" by itself, without any qualifiers, has become commonly used as an all-purpose insult or an expression of defiance.

Joke

A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh. It takes the form of a story, usually with dialogue, and ends in a punch line. It is in the punch line that the audience becomes aware that the story contains a second, conflicting meaning. This can be done using a pun or other word play such as irony, a logical incompatibility, nonsense or other means. Linguist Robert Hetzron offers the definition:

A good joke is succinct, containing no more detail than is needed to set the scene for the punchline at the end. In the case of riddle jokes or one-liners the setting is implicitly understood, leaving only the dialogue and punchline to be verbalized. Identified as one of the simple forms of oral literature by the Dutch linguist André Jolles, jokes are passed along anonymously. They are told in both private and public settings; a single person tells a joke to his friend in the natural flow of conversation, or a set of jokes is told to a group as part of scripted entertainment. Jokes are also passed along in written form or—more recently—through electronic messaging systems. Internet joking has indeed become a major method of transmission. Either as written narratives or graphic cartoons, jokes are sent through email to friends and acquaintances; individuals joking with each other in a physical space have been replaced here by electronic social groups. This correlates with the new understanding of the internet as an "active folkloric space" with evolving social and cultural forces and clearly identifiable performers and audiences. Along with individual transmission of jokes to email contacts, internet services are also available to provide a fresh joke-a-day to your email inbox or archive joke collections on electronic bulletin boards.

Humour

Humour (in Commonwealth English), or humor (in American English) is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in the human body, known as humours (Latin: humor, "body fluid"), controlled human health and emotion.

People of all ages and cultures respond to humour. Most people are able to experience humour—be amused, smile or laugh at something funny—and thus are considered to have a sense of humour. The hypothetical person lacking a sense of humour would likely find the behaviour induced by humour to be inexplicable, strange, or even irrational. Though ultimately decided by personal taste, the extent to which a person finds something humorous depends on a host of variables, including geographical location, culture, maturity, level of education, intelligence and context. For example, young children may favour slapstick such as Punch and Judy puppet shows or cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, whose physical nature makes it accessible to them. By contrast, sophisticated forms of humour such as satire require an understanding of its social meaning and context, and thus tend to appeal to the mature audience.

Sardarji joke

Sardarji jokes or Sardar jokes, are a class of ethnic jokes based on stereotypes of Sikhs (who use the title of "Sardar", with -ji being an honorific). Although jokes about other ethnic and linguistic communities are found in various regions of India, Sardarji jokes are the most widely circulated ethnic jokes and found across the country. Sardarji jokes are generally considered tasteless and inappropriate by members of the Sikh community, and have elicited protests as well as leading to arrests for hurting religious sentiments.

Origin

Some of the dominant traits of the Sardar jokes include the Sardar being shown as naïve, inept, unintelligent, or not well-versed with the English language. Many of the Sardar jokes are variations of other ethnic jokes or stereotype jokes. Some of them also depict Sardarjis as witty or using other people's stereotyped perceptions against them.

Santa and Banta are two popular names for the stock characters in the Sardar jokes. The researcher Jawaharlal Handoo associates some traits of the Sardar jokes with the stereotype of Sikhs being associated with jobs where physical fitness is more important than knowledge of the English language or intellect. He also states that "In my opinion, the 'success-story' of the Sikh-community as a whole has taken the form of a deep-rooted anxiety in the collective minds of the non-Sikh majorities especially the Hindus of India....Sikhs are a very prosperous and successful people ....this may have threatened the Hindu ego and created the anxiety which in turn seems to have taken the form of various stereotypes and the resultant joke cycle." Soumen Sen states that these jokes perhaps reflect the anxiety of the non-Sikh Indian elite, who may have suffered from a sense of insecurity due to the growing competition from the enterprising Sikhs.