Wikipedia

Dozens (game)

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The dozens is an African American custom in which two competitors go head to head in a competition of often ribald "trash-talk". They take turns insulting—"cracking", "ranking", "sparking", or "snapping"—on one another, their adversary's mother, or other family member until one of them has no comeback. This is called playing the dozens, doin' the dozens, or sometimes dirty dozens. The dozens is a contest of personal power—of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility, and mental toughness. Each putdown, or snap, ups the ante. Defeat can be humiliating, but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect. The dozens is one of the contributing elements in the development of hip hop, especially the practice of battling.

History and practice

The dozens can be a harmless game of casual, good-natured jibes; an exchange of malicious insults; or, if tempers flare, a prelude to physical violence. While the competition on its face is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions. In its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of "woofin'" and "signifyin'", ostensibly intended to defuse conflict nonviolently, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures. Likely this stems from how many tribal disputes were settled. Tribes would stand at either end of an open field and shout their disputes back and forth, with distance placed between them to prevent any violent reactions. If an agreement was reached, only the village leaders came to the center of the field, at which time they would embrace and part ways. If, however, an agreement was not reached, a battle would likely ensue.

"Yo' momma", a common, widely recognized argumentative rejoinder in African-American vernacular speech, is a cryptic and sometimes comical allusion to the dozens.

The term the dozens is believed to refer to the devaluing on the auction block of slaves who were past their prime, deformed, aged, or no longer capable of hard labor after years of back-breaking toil. These slaves often were sold by the dozen. In "Still Laughing to Keep from Crying: Black Humor", African-American author and professor Mona Lisa Saloy writes:

The dozens has its origins in the slave trade of New Orleans where deformed slaves—generally slaves punished with dismemberment for disobedience—were grouped in lots of a 'cheap dozen' for sale to slave owners. For a Black to be sold as part of the 'dozens' was the lowest blow possible.[1]

Kokomo Arnold, one of the most popular American blues musicians of the 1930s, released a song Twelves (Dirty Dozens) that includes lyrics such as:

I like yo' momma - sister, too
I did like your poppa - but your poppa wouldn't do
I met your poppa on the corner the other day
I soon found out he was funny that way.

Alternative hip hop group The Pharcyde released a song on their debut album Bizarre Ride II: The Pharcyde entitled "Yo' Mama", the lyrics of which consist entirely of snaps. Australian hip-hop outfit Butterfingers have a song "Yo Momma", which features the chorus "Yo Momma's on the top of my things-to-do list".

In 2004, the Wayans Brothers released The Dozens, a dozens game for mobile phones. The movies White Men Can't Jump, Remember the Titans, 8 Mile, and House Party include exchanges of snaps. The TV show In Living Color regularly featured a game show segment titled The Dirty Dozens and parodies of popular game shows, such as Wheel of Dozens and Family Dozens.

George Carlin talks about playing the dozens on his grammy winning album The Class Clown.

"You wanna know the dozens, well the dozens is a game, but the way I fucked your mother, is a god damn shame"

African-American youth have been known to express contempt or defiance by reciting a short poem that refers to the dozens, but in which the insults are mostly implied:

Yo' momma, yo' daddy, Yo' bald-headed granny
Yo' momma, Yo' daddy, Yo' sista, too. Go tell them bitches to go back to the zoo.

The dozens in literature

Snaps (1994), written by James Percelay, is a compendium of over 450 jokes. Its popularity gave rise to sequels Double Snaps (1995), Triple Snaps (1996), and Snaps 4 (1998). The books use the epithet "your mother", as opposed to the more common "yo' momma".

A Portrait of Yo Mama As a Young Man (2005), written by Andrew Barlow and Kent Roberts, is a postmodern take on the dozens which redefines the form through the use of reflexivity, absurdism, and anti-humor. In addition to jokes, the book contains charts, poetry, a résumé, and various other short humor pieces.

There are similar phenomena to the dozens in other cultures. In Britain, for instance, the analogous usage is "your mum" or "your mam" or "yer maw". Derogatory barbs focus almost exclusively on impugning the sexual integrity of the target's mother.

Historically, similar verbal competitions were practiced in other cultures. Ancient Germanic cultures, including the Norse and Anglo-Saxons, practiced a ritual exchange of insults known as flyting, which is similar in function to the dozens. In sixteenth-century Scotland, the term flyting was used to describe an exchange of abusive poems by poets. American cowboys in the late nineteenth century participated in cussing contests, the winners of which were sometimes rewarded with new saddles.

Some use your mom jokes as a riposte and often a counter-riposte to any insulting statement made—for example, the short exchange: "You're a cock sucking whore with poor fashion sense." "Your mom is a cock sucking whore with poor fashion sense."

In recent years, your mom jokes also are used for statements that have no hostile or pejorative intent: "I love to eat ice cream." "Your mom loves to eat ice cream!" The phrase can also be used to skew another person's words: "Ramen noodles are cheap and easy." "Your mom is cheap and easy!". Quips such as "That's what your mum said" are also sometimes used to derive humour in reply to anything vaguely innuendous.

Examples of snaps

What follow are a few sanitized, less colorful examples of snaps in the dozens.

"Yo' momma's so fat..."

  • "...she fell in love and broke it."
  • "...when she goes out camping, the bears have to hide their food."
  • "...she's on both sides of the family."

Yo' momma's so heavy, when she stepped on a scale...

  • "...it said, 'One at a time, please!'"
  • "...it said, 'No livestock allowed!'"
  • "...it said, 'To be continued!'"

"Yo' momma's so old..."

"Yo' momma's so poor..."

  • "...she got married just for the rice!"
  • "...she can't even afford to pay attention!"
  • "...she put a cheeseburger on layaway!"

"Yo' momma's so stupid..."

  • "...she sits on the T.V. and watches the couch!"
  • "...she thinks Tupac Shakur is a Jewish holiday."
  • "...she went hungry in an all-you-can-eat buffet."

"Yo' momma's so bald, you can see what she thinkin'."

"Yo' momma's such a bad cook..."

  • "...she still makes radio dinners."
  • "...she lost her recipe for instant coffee."
  • "...we pray after we eat."

"Yo' momma's like..."

  • "a shotgun: give her a cock and she'll blow."
  • "a doorknob: everyone gets a turn."
  • "a vacuum cleaner: she sucks, blows, and gets laid in the closet."

"Yo' father..."

  • "got no legs so he shops at Just Shirts!"
  • "has no arms and bought a vest"

"Yo' sister's so ugly..."

  • "...when she was born, yo' grandmomma said, 'What a treasure! Let's go bury it.'"
  • "...she makes blind kids cry."
  • "...the bears built a fire to keep her away."

"Yo' sister's like a..."

  • "... race car, she burns four rubbers a night."
  • "...computer, she's on everybody's laptop."

"Yo' brother's so..."

  • "...stupid, he was fired from the M&Ms factory for throwing away all the "W"'s!"
  • "...fat, he raced a pregnant woman and came in third!"

Snaps may also exaggerate a persons body part such as:

  • "...Your nose is so big you pick your boogers with boxing gloves."
  • "...Your lips so big your mouth looks like a cheeseburger."

See also

References

  1. ^ Mona Lisa Saloy (2005-11-15). "Still Laughing to Keep from Crying: Black Humor". Louisiana Folklife Festival booklet. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |publishyear= ignored (help)
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