Tan: Vulgarity

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, Sally Caves wrote:
>
> >
> > > It's the humorous reitierations of unfounded aspersions on the virtue
> > > of ones opponents parents that are so tiresome and vulgar...
> >
> > You mean like "Your mother's so fat" jokes?  But I love those!
> >
>
> Ai! Typo here - I mean humor_less_... But out of curiosity,
> how does the obesity of ones mother mean she's of easy virtue?
It doesn't.  It's a contest of insults that surfaces now and
again in American humor (I don't know if it's British as well).
You might call it invective.  It was recently on one of Garrison
Keillor's (sp?) Prairie Home Companion episodes, but I've heard
it elsewhere.  At any rate, you try to top the other person with
an insult about his/her fat mother, usually in the most extreme
ways:  "Your mother's so fat, her feet haven't seen the sun in
years!"  "Well, YOUR mother's so fat, when she fell into the
pond with the hippos at the zoo, instead of rescuing her, they
threw peanuts at her!"  "Well..."  And it goes on at ridiculous and
outrageous length.  It's totally offensive, and for some reason
hilariously funny.  Mostly because the opponents sometimes get
confused or laugh.  No flames, please... yes, it's utterly
insensitive to the real problems and pain of obesity.  Like Helen
Keller jokes.

Sally