Your Mamma

In the 80's, when I was growing up a disheveled and terribly antiestablishment/anti-corporate youth of the rebellious variety.There was a particular game that I and many of my friends would often engage.

It was a thing known as a "Cut-Down" fight. 

It basically consisted of something that went like this:

Kid 1: Don't be stupid.

Kid 2: I'm not stupid.

Kid 1: Uh HUUH... Your so stupid you stared at the orange juice can cause it said concentrate.
(Other kids standing around would say OOOH He got YOU)

Kid 2: Well your so dumb you took a ruler to bed to find out how long you slept.

Kid 1: Well your mama's so fat...she carries a refrigerator for a beeper!

Kid 2: Well YOUR mama's so fat...your daddy slaps her butt so he can surf the WAVES!!!!

Kid 2, having obviously made a remarkably and injuriously wonderful pun then wins the argument....the two friends give a high five and then scurry off to Algebra class. 

In fact...Your Mama jokes were so unbelievably prevalent as being the understood ultimate "nuclear option" that was resorted to in any cut-down fight...it has become somewhat of a cliche. As god is my witness there are thousands of them.

To me...your mamma jokes are so incredibly cliche'd that they amount to nothing but feigned comedy....that really means just about nothing. 

Since my adolescent days...and at every period of my life since, at some point while working or playing, or drinking, or messing around with others in a relaxed atmosphere...I have ALWAYS known someone to at some point say "Your Ma!" in an attempt at levity. 

Never have I known it to offend...

Until recently. 

In jest at work some months ago I replied to one of my coworkers..."Your Ma!" and he replied with: "Don't talk about my mother."

To which I replied with the age-old refrigerator/beeper cliche that ended up being immortalized by Eddie Murphy. 

The reply was thusly: "If you talk about my mamma again we're going to have to step outside. DON'T TALK ABOUT MY MOTHER. What the hell is wrong with you...you don't talk about peoples mothers"

I was astounded...and have come to learn that there is not one...but 3 or 4 people I work with (there are 10 people in our shop) who are equally offended...I know because I took a poll. 

To me it's weird that someone would actually take offense to something that has become so cliche'd in American culture.

Luckily, there is a guy in our shop who shared a similar childhood of cut-down fights, which allows us to relive some of the more ridiculous events from our lost childhoods...so all is not lost...

...but I'm still baffled.