Comedy is not pretty, and sometimes people can get hurt by ostensibly humorous comments. However, sometimes that is the intent of the person telling the joke. The insult is one of the most potent tools in a comedian's arsenal.A comedian can insult someone for any reason, whether it is the target's physical appearance, intellect, personality or even his or her background. While jokes about
. people's racial, ethnic, national or religious backgrounds, gender or sexual orientation are falling out of favor due to a combination of increased awareness of minority issues and what some critics refer to as " political correctness," the intent is not always mean-spirited. Some comics, such as Don Rickles and, more recently, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, have made decades-long careers with no-holds-barred barbs about any aspect of a person's personality and makes his audience want him to insult them. Insults are a vital component of much of humor in movies and television shows; in the 1970s " All in the Family" both outraged and entertained audiences with the bigoted remarks of its central character, Archie Bunker, while popular singer and TV host Dean Martin invited celebrities to Friar's Club Roasts where their friends and colleagues made fun of them before the Man or Woman of the Hour got his or her chance to respond. Comedy Central has continued the latter tradition with its own Roasts of celebrities, such as William Shatner, David Hasselhoff and Bob Saget.One of the most popular forms of insult humor in recent years is the " Yo Mama" joke. Based on a traditional game that originated in the black community known as " The Dozens" which, in turn, originates from a Nigeria known as " Ikocha Nkocha," two or more people invent jokes making fun of the other person's mother for their height, weight, age, intellect or other aspect of her personality. These remarks need not correlate to what the targeted mother actually looks like. Many of these jokes have a surreal bent, such as " Yo Mama is so fat she jumped in the air and got stuck," " Yo Mama is so dumb it took her two hours to watch 60 Minutes" or " Yo Mama is so old she rode to school on a dinosaur." More reference links: www.101insults.com http://www.comedy-zone.net/jokes/laugh/insults/index.htm
