Keywords
benign-violation theory
masculine honour beliefs
joke content
disparagement humor
How to Cite
Abstract
Two studies examine factors associated with reactions to the popular mother joke format (i.e., jokes denigrating or disrespecting the audience’s mother), both in general (Study 1, n = 167 undergraduates, predominantly White) and for specific jokes (Study 2, n = 215 undergraduates, predominantly White). Study 1, a correlational design, found higher endorsement of masculine honour beliefs was associated with greater willingness to share and perceived funniness of mother jokes in general; all but one honour subscale (family) shared these relationships. Content analysis of participants’ qualitative responses indicate that participants primarily think about mother jokes in terms of their content and performance, and participant-provided examples of mother jokes typically fit a scalar format and primarily target four domains (weight, intelligence, appearance, sexuality). Study 2, an experimental design, examined the relationships between masculine honour beliefs and responses to specific jokes from each of these four domains, using a between-groups experimental design to further examine the effects of joke type (ugly, fat, stupid, sexual) and the relationship of the joke teller (friend, stranger). Results also showed participants perceived mother jokes more negatively when they were told by a stranger than a friend, and that fat mother jokes and sexual mother jokes were perceived more negatively than ugly mother jokes and stupid mother jokes. Overall masculine honour beliefs were unrelated with perceptions of specific mother jokes, but two subscales (virtue, family) showed opposing relationships with these evaluations. The diverging relationships of masculine honour subscales and mother joke perceptions between these two studies are discussed.
References
Bergen, B., & Binsted, K. (2003). The cognitive linguistics of scalar humor. In M. Archard & S. Kenmer (Eds.), Language, culture, and mind. CSLI Publications.
Blocker, J. (2016, July 25). Exploring the enduring appeal of ‘your mum’ jokes. Vice. Retrieved from: https://www.vice.com/en/article/enduring-appeal-of-your-mum-jokes/
Buie, H. S., Ford, T. E., Olah, A. R., Argüello, C., & Mendiburo-Seguel, A. (2022). Where’s your sense of humor? Political identity moderates evaluations of disparagement humor. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25(5), 1395-1411. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430221998792
Burmeister, J. M., & Carels, R. A. (2014). Weight-related humor in the media: Appreciation, distaste, and anti-fat attitudes. Psychology of Popular Media, 3(4), 223-238. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000029
Cao, Y., Liu, Y., Hou, Y., & Ji, L.-J. (2023). The effects of benevolent vs. corrective humor on interpersonal liking and behavioral compliance. Personality and Individual Differences, 200, 111907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111907
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024, September 12). New CDC data show adult obesity prevalence remains high. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0912-adult-obesity.html
Conway, A. (1995). You’re ugly, your dick is small and everybody fucks your mother! The stand-up comedian’s response to the heckler. Maledicta, 11, 34-46. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20190211140828/http://www.juggling.org/~conway/juggler/MAL.TXT
Crandall, C. S., D’Anello, S., Sakalli, N., Lazarus, E., Nejtardt, G. W., & Feather, N. T. (2001). An attribution-value model of prejudice: Anti-fat attitudes in six nations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(1), 30-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167201271003
Ford, T. E., & Ferguson, M. A. (2004). Social consequences of disparagement humor: A prejudiced norm theory. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8(1), 79-94. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0801_4
Ford, T. E., & Olah, A. R. (2021). Disparagement humor and prejudice: Advances in theory and research. In M. Strick & T. E. Ford (Eds.), The social psychology of humor (pp. 151–169). Routledge/ Taylor & Francis Group.
Friedberg, J. (Director), & Seltzer, A. (Director). (2008). Meet the Spartans [Film]. New Regency Productions.
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2003). SPSS for Windows step by step: A simple guide and reference. 11.0 update (4th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
Gilliam, T. (Director), & Jones, T. (Director). (1975). Monty Python and the holy grail [Film]. Python (Monty) Pictures; Michael White Productions; National Film Trustee Company.
Greenwood, D., & Gautam, R. (2020). What’s in a Tweet? Gender and sexism moderate reactions to antifat sexist humor on Twitter. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 33(2), 265-290. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2019-0026
Greenwood, D., & Isbell, L. M. (2002). Ambivalent sexism and the dumb blonde: Men’s and women’s reactions to sexist jokes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26(4), 341-350. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-6402.t01-2-00073
Heintz, S. (2020). Separating content and structure in humor appreciation: A bimodal structural equation modeling approach. Journal of Individual Differences, 41(1), 37-44. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000301
Herzog, T. R., & Bush, B. A. (1994). The prediction of preference for sick humor. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 7(4), 323-340. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1994.7.4.323
Hodson, G., Rush, J., & MacInnis, C. (2010). A joke is just a joke (except when it isn’t): Cavalier humor beliefs facilitate the expression of group dominance motives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(4), 660-682. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019627
Jeffries, S. (2006, July 12). The mother of all insults. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2006/jul/12/worldcup2006.sport
Kant, L., & Norman, E. (2019). You must be joking! Benign violations, power asymmetry, and humor in a broader social context. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1380. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01380
Kibbe, K. (2021, May 6). Unpacking the obvious, oft-overlooked misogyny of the “your mom” joke. InsideHook. Retrieved from: https://www.insidehook.com/culture/misogyny-your-mom-joke
Koszalkowska, K., & Wróbel, M. (2019). Moral judgment of disparagement humor. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 32(4), 619-641. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2018-0023
Krys, K., Xing, C., Zelenski, J. M., Capaldi, C. A., Lin, Z., & Wojciszke, B. (2017). Punches or punchlines? Honor, face, and dignity cultures encourage different reactions to provocation. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 30(3), 303-322. https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2016-0087
Laughing, J. B. (2015). Yo mama jokes bible: Funny & hilarious yo mama jokes!. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Lemon, S. C., Rosal, M. C., Zapka, J., Borg, A., & Andersen, V. (2009). Contributions of weight perceptions to weight loss attempts: Differences by body mass index and gender. Body Image, 6(2), 90-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2008.11.004
Martens, A. L., Stratmoen, E., & Saucier, D. A. (2018). To preserve, protect, and defend: Masculine honor beliefs and perceptions of the 2016 presidential candidates. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 40(5), 308-319. https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2018.1500288
McGraw, A. P., & Warren, C. (2010). Benign violations: Making immoral behavior funny. Psychological Science, 21(8), 1141-1149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610376073
McGraw, A. P., Williams, L. E., & Warren, C. (2014). The rise and fall of humor: Psychological distance modulates humorous responses to tragedy. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(5), 566-572. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550613515006
Norrick, N. R. (2004). Non-verbal humor and joke performance. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 17(4), 401-409. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2004.17.4.401
O’Dea, C. J., Miller, S. S., Andres, E. B., Ray, M. H., Till, D. F., & Saucier, D. A. (2015). Out of bounds: Factors affecting the perceived offensiveness of racial slurs. Language Sciences, 52, 155-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2014.09.005
Olah, A. R., & Saucier, D. A. (2025). “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me”: Perceptions of violence in response to humor. Psychology of Popular Media, 14(1), 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000555
Parker, T. (Writer & Director), & Stone, M. (Writer). (2011, November 16). The poor kid (Season 15, Episode 14). In T. Parker, M. Stone, & J. Zegarski (Executive Producers), South Park. MTV Entertainment Studios; Comedy Central; South Park Studios.
Peters, M. (2014, May 14). The eternal, immature joy of mother jokes. Psychology Today. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/laughing-stock/201405/the-eternal-immature-joy-mother-jokes
Prusaczyk, E., & Hodson, G. (2020). “To the moon, Alice”: Cavalier humor beliefs and women’s reactions to aggressive and belittling sexist jokes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 88, Article 103973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2020.103973
Randolph, M., & Lewis, M. (2023). Battles, raps, cappin’, the Dozens: African-American oral traditions of insult. In T. Ojaide (eds.), African battle traditions of insult: African histories and modernities (pp 115–132). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15617-5_7
Rao, M. (2012, January 30). Babylonian yo mama joke is 3500 years old. Huffpost. Retrieved from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/babylonian-yo-mama-joke_n_1242617
Remark, A. (2022). 1000 yo mama jokes: The ultimate collection. Independently published.
Rosenbusch, H., Evans, A. M., & Zeelenberg, M. (2022). The relative importance of joke and audience characteristics in eliciting amusement. Psychological Science, 33(9), 1386-1394. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221098595
Saucier, D. A., & McManus, J. L. (2013). Men of honor: Examining individual differences in masculine honor beliefs. In J. Gelfer (Ed.), Masculinities in a global era. (pp. 85–99). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6931-5_5
Saucier, D. A., Miller, S. S., & O’Dea, C. J. (2025). Individual differences in masculine honor beliefs and men’s perceptions of insults targeting their masculinity. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605251329470
Saucier, D. A., Stanford, A. J., Miller, S. S., Martens, A. L., Miller, A. K., Jones, T. L., McManus, J. L., & Burns, M. D. (2016). Masculine honor beliefs: Measurement and correlates. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 7-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.049
Saucier, D. A., Till, D. F., Miller, S. S., O’Dea, C. J., & Andres, E. (2015). Slurs against masculinity: Masculine honor beliefs and men’s reactions to slurs. Language Sciences, 52, 108-120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2014.09.006
Shelton, R. (Director). (1992). White men can’t jump [Film]. Twentieth Century Fox.
So, J., Prestin, A., Lee, L., Wang, Y., Yen, J., & Chou, W.-Y. S. (2016). What do people like to “share” about obesity? A content analysis of frequent retweets about obesity on Twitter. Health Communication, 31(2), 193-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2014.940675
Stanzak, S. (2012). Manipulating play frames: The yo momma joke cycle on YouTube. Children’s Folklore Review, 34, 7-32. Retrieved from: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/cfr/article/view/25057
Statista Search Department (2024, February), Percentage of U.S. adults who wanted to lose weight from 1951 to 2023, by gender [Infographic]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1305139/percentage-of-us-adults-who-wanted-to-lose-weight-by-gender/
Sublette, K. (Writer), Seidell, S. (Writer), Gates, A. (Writer), Baker, R. (Writer), Bulla, D. (Writer), Che, M. (Writer), DiCenzo, M. (Writer), English, A. (Writer), Fowlie, J. (Writer), Herlihy, M. (Writer), Higgins, J. (Writer), Higgins, S. (Writer), Jackson, V. (Writer), Jost, C. (Writer), Kenward, E. (Writer), Marshall, B. (Writer), Michaels, L. (Writer), Nordwind, J. (Writer), O’Sullivan, C. (Writer), … Patrick, L. (Director). (2023, April 1). Quinta Brunson/Lil Yachty (Season 48, Episode 16) [TV series episode]. In Michael, L. (Executive Producers), Saturday Night Live. Broadway Video; SNL Studios
Sullivan, E. (2016, August 13). Donald Trump lobbed a yo momma joke at a heckler last night. Esquire. Retrieved from: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a47636/donald-trump-yo-momma-joke/
Vincent, J. (2014, April 24). William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday: The five best insults ever dished out by the Bard. Independent. Retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/william-shakespeare-s-450th-birthday-the-five-best-insults-ever-dished-out-by-the-bard-9277309.html
Warren, C., Barsky, A., & McGraw, A. P. (2021). What makes things funny? An integrative review of the antecedents of laughter and amusement. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 25(1), 41-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868320961909
Wayans, K. I. (Creator), Sheffield, B. (Writer), Bakay, N. (Writer), Carrey, J. (Writer), Fields, G. (Writer), Firestein, L. (Writer), Griffin, F. (Writer), Jones, E. R. (Writer), Jones, T. (Writer), Kelleher, T. (Writer), Martin, B. (Writer), Quinn, C. (Writer), Rice, A. S. L. (Writer), Schiff, M. (Writer), Seabrooks, B. M. (Writer), Shannon, T. S. (Writer), Veasey, P. (Writer), Williams, M. E. (Writer), Wilmore, M. (Writer), & Miller, P. (Director). (1993, September 23). The Dirty Dozens (Season 5, Episode 2) [TV series episode]. In G. Fields, L. Firestein, P. Veasey (Executive Producers), In Living Color. Ivory Way Productions; 20th Century Fox Television.
Your Mom. (2024, September 22). In Urban dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=your%20mom
Your Mom. (2009, April 30). In TV tropes. Retrieved from https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YourMom
Zaalberg, R., Manstead, A. S. R., & Fischer, A. H. (2004). Relations between emotions, display rules, social motives, and facial behavior. Cognition and Emotion, 18(2), 183-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930341000040
Zillmann, D., & Cantor, J. R. (1996). A disposition theory of humour and mirth. In A. J. Chapman & H. C. Foot (Eds.), Humor and laughter: Theory, research, and applications (pp. 93-115). Transaction Publishers. (Original work published 1976).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 The European Journal of Humour Research