What are "yo mama" jokes?

A "Your Mama" joke is an insult directed at another person's mother. Although these kind of insults tend to be demeaning, they are generally considered to be tongue-in-cheek and meant to be viewed as light-hearted in nature.

The modern "Yo Mama" joke has been around, in one form or another, for hundreds of years in literature. Examples of this can be found all the way back in the works of Shakespeare, notably in the play "Timon of Athens." The "Yo Mama" joke enjoyed heightened cultural popularity in 2006 and 2007, when MTV aired a show centered around making the jokes in a competitive setting.