By Eva (81.226.54.68) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 12:15 pm:

Hi everyone,

Here's a piece of info picked up from the Signifyin' mailing list:

New from
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS

"Word Magic" from the streets of the inner city
Remember "Miss Mary Mack," "Dolemite," and "The Signifying Monkey?" These poems, and hundreds like them are all contained in Yo' Mama! New Raps,
Toasts, Dozens, Jokes, & Children's Rhymes from Urban Black America edited by Onwuchekwa Jemie (Publication Date: February 29, 2004). This extremely comprehensive and balanced volume of African American folklore examines the history and significance of this "word magic."

Collected primarily in metropolitan New York and Philadelphia during the classic era of black "street poetry" (i.e., during the late 1960s and early 1970s) these raps, signifyings, toasts, boasts, jokes and children's rhymes will delight general readers as well as scholars.

Ranging from the simple rhymes that accompany children's games to verbally inventive insults and the epic exploits of traditional characters like Shine and Stagger Lee, these texts sound the deep rivers of culture, echoing two continents.

Onwuchekwa Jemie highlights the extraordinary qualities of this literature, and his introductory essay situates the dozens, rhymes, and jokes in a globally pan-African context. In addition, Jemie relates this enduring literature to more recent forms of oral culture such as rap and spoken word.

Onwuchekwa Jemie teaches African American and African Literature at Butler University. He is the author of Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry and coauthor of Toward the Decolonization of African Literature.

Here's a URL with purchase info:

http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1453_reg.html

All the best, Eva

By Philly-Dell (205.188.209.48) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 01:41 pm:

Eva...Here are a few we used to say here in Philly and this is not directed to anyone in this forum so don't be offended..

Yo mom teeth so yellow she spits butter
Yo mom so skinny she can hoola hoop through a cheerio
Yo mom so dumb she thought Taco Bell was a Mexican Telephone Company
Yo mom so dumb she thought Dunkin Donuts was a basketball team
Yo mom so fat she uses a VCR for a beeper
Yo mom so fat she could skateboard on a greyhound bus
Yo mom so fat when she jumped up she got stuck

Hope that was humerous for some of you

By Livonia Ken (136.1.1.101) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 01:55 pm:

You leave my mother out of this and I'll leave this out of your mother.

Regards,
Ken

By Eli (68.236.53.71) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 01:57 pm:

Yo mama so big, she got her own zip code.
Yo mama so dumb she think hall and oates is a hillbilly act

By E (68.236.53.71) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 01:58 pm:

Yo daddy a f***ot cause he work fo Ben-dix

By Nosey (66.153.113.238) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 02:05 pm:

Remember some of the "moron" jokes? Heres a couple:
Why did the moron take a ladder to the baseball game? He heard the giants were playing.
Why did the moron put his sister on the step? He wanted a step sister.
What did the moron say when the dog went over the cliff? Dog gone.......

Yikes! That took me wwwwwaaaaaaayyyyy back in the day.

By Eva (81.226.54.68) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 03:05 pm:

I'm enjoying your memories from back in the day! Keep 'em coming! Do kids in the US tell the same jokes, play the same "dozens" etc. now that they did in the 60's-70's? I'm asking because here in Sweden all us kids used to tell "Bellman jokes/stories" in the sixties (Bellman was actually an 18th century poet, but the jokes have no relation to the historical person). The funny thing is, my son, who is nine, also knows jokes and stories with this Bellman figure, although the content/style is a bit different. You gotta wonder how this stuff spreads and travels from place to place and through time...

Eva

By Livonia Ken (136.1.1.101) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 03:17 pm:

A lot of them are perennial, but occasionally, they are specific to their times. I remember in the early 90s, I heard a guy crack "Your mama's so fat that helicopters try landing on her when she wears a Malcolm X shirt".

Regards,
Ken

By Rodmann (12.223.170.105) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 03:46 pm:

Haha. Oh man, you guys are taking me back! I remember back in grade school this was all we did! We would say things like:

"Yo Mama lips so big that she gotta use a paintbrush to put on her lipstick."

or things like:

"Ya Mama ain't got no shoulder and be talkin' 'bout lean on me."

"Ya Mama ain't got no arm talkin' 'bout I'm reaching for the top!"

we can't forget this one:

"I saw ya mama kicking a tuna can so I asked her what she was doin' and she said MOVIN'!

LOL. Where did we get this stupid stuff and why was every joke directed at "Yo Mama"? Just dumb!

By Livonia Ken (136.1.1.101) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 03:46 pm:

Whoops! Scratch "occasionally" from my previous post and substitute "frequently". Or just apply the standards Livonia Ken "What he means, not what he says" disclaimer.

Regards,
Ken

By ~medusa~ (68.248.73.73) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 09:11 pm:

I think I remember one that kinda went like this...oh nevermind, it's not so nice~~~

By Allen (24.31.32.197) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 09:29 pm:

Yo Mama puddy so dry, her crabs carry cantines...

By Nosey (152.163.253.70) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 10:58 pm:

I got some original yo mamas:

Yo mama so dumb she was happy when the doctor said she didn't have a clue.

Yo mama so dumb, she bought a time-share at Rikers Island.

Yo mama so old, she used to do Eve's nails.

Yo mama so dumb she gave a smoker money to buy her baby some medicine.

Yo mama so old, she typed the Ten Commandments for Moses.

Yo mama butt so big, they call her Tailways.

Yo mama so dumb when she went to the Goodwill, she bought back all the stuff she donated, talkin bout she needed it.

By SisDetroit (68.42.209.170) on Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 11:03 pm:

Nosey - LOL

By ~medusa~ (68.248.73.73) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 12:16 am:

Hey Sis>>>

By Helene (217.32.166.37) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 02:42 am:

You mean to tell me that Taco Bell AIN'T no phone company...........?

By johneflat (64.12.112.37) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 02:59 am:

heheheheh...y'all are crackin' me up!
"YO mama so black, when she get cut, she bleed smoke!"
"Yo mama went to a haunted house, and they gave her an application!"
"Yo mama so black, when she gets out of her car, the oil light come on!"

By Nosey (66.153.113.238) on Friday, March 19, 2004 - 10:00 am:

Now to play the dozens on the ghetto churches:

Yo church so ghetto it got bad credit!

Yo church so ghetto the mother of the church is 34!

Yo church so ghetto, the childrens choir is called the Heavenly Hoes!

Yo church so ghetto, the pastor's wife has a Jesus tattoo!

Yo church so ghetto, the ushers be on their posts eatin fried chicken!

Yo church so ghetto, the deacons pimp on the side!

Yo church so ghetto, they boo the pastor!

Yo church so ghetto, they take access cards!

Yo church so ghetto, for the pastor's anniversary banquet, they order out!

Don't have a cow y'all, it's Friday!

By Isaiah (152.163.253.70) on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 05:58 am:

Eva, thanks again for bringing this information to our attention... I hope that you will continue to share the info you find in the future - and I will be aquiring that book in the near future(smile!) BTW, a great example of this "snapping" tradition of Black communities in soul music is the song TRAMP with Otis and Carla... And Rap is almost entirely about Toasting and Snapping...

Nosey, I see why they call it "ill-adelphia", now!(smile!) Sister, you straight off-da-chain(LOL!)

Peace!
Isaiah

By E (68.236.53.71) on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 12:54 pm:

Yo mama so dumb, she think Yoyoma makes music just for her.

By Nosey (205.188.209.9) on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 03:27 pm:

Oh, I just remembered another original yo mama: Yo mama so dumb, her favorite color is light black!

I did a show at a church on Friday night and was the only comic to show up! They gave me a love offering of $25.00 and the pastor of the church is somewhat connected to the gospel quartet circuit here and wants me back in two weeks for his anniversary.

One thing I learned from being the solo performer is to go over more material than whats required because instead of doing the anticipated 10 minutes, I did a half hour!

By Isaiah (205.188.209.9) on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 03:32 pm:

Nosey, if you're ever in NYCNYUSA, please put the word out so that I can come and cheer you on!(smile!) As all the around-da-way girls say, You So Funnnnny!(smile!)

Peace!
Isaiah

By Nosey (205.188.209.9) on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 06:13 pm:

Thanks Isaiah! Who knows..........I would like to hook up with some other clean/Christian comics to perhaps do some of the churches in NY and NJ.

By Eva (81.226.54.68) on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 06:35 pm:

Hi everyone,

I also love Carla's and Otis' back and forth on "Tramp"....Otis bragging "I got six Cadillacs, five Lincolns, four Fords, six Mercurys, three T-birds, a Mustang...Oooo, I'm a luh-ver" LOL!

As for slagging (as I believe the Irish say!) someone else's mother, there is of course the other side of the coin, like what you see in the Intruders "I'll Always Love My Mama" or all those gospel tributes to "Mother". But I guess that's the subject of another thread!;-)

Eva