The dozens
Encyclopedia
The Dozens is a game that has its origins in African American slavery. The game originates from the devaluing and bargaining off of deformed or defective slaves in auction houses. This element of the African American
oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a competition of often good-natured insults. They take turns "cracking," "snapping," "ribbing" or insulting on—one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback. This is called playing the dozens or doin' the dozens, and sometimes dirty dozens. The dozens is a contest of personal power—of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility and mental toughness. Each putdown, each "snap", ups the ante. Defeat can be humiliating, but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect. The dozens is one of the contributing elements in the development of hip hop
, especially the practice of battling.
The dozens can be a harmless game, or, if tempers flare, a prelude to violence. While the competition, on its face, is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions. But in its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of woofin'
and signifyin', intended to defuse conflict nonviolently, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures.
"Yo mama", or "yo madra" are common, widely recognized argumentative rejoinder in African-American vernacular speech, is a cryptic and sometimes comical allusion to the dozens. An example would be, "Yo momma is so fat she follows Burger King
on Twitter
!"
Author John Leland describes an alternate etymology. He writes that it is a modern survival of an English verb—"to dozen"—dating back at least to the fourteenth century and meaning "to stun, stupefy, daze" or "to make insensible, torpid, powerless." The object of the game is to stupefy and daze with swift and skillful speech.
In 1929, the boogie-woogie
pianist Speckled Red
recorded a song entitled "The Dirty Dozen" which includes lyrics such as "I like yo' momma—sister, too/I did like your poppa—but your poppa would not do./I met your poppa on the corner the other day/I soon found out he was funny that way." (Kokomo Arnold
, one of the most popular American blues
musicians of the 1930s, also recorded much the same song under the title "The Twelves" in 1935.)
In 1959, Bo Diddley
released "Say Man" on Checker 931
(with "The Clock Strikes Twelve" as the B-side
), which featured him trading insults with his percussionist Jerome Green. The lyrics are not sung, but spoken conversationally over a musical background; this track has been described as a precursor of rap
.
The sketch show In Living Color
featured a recurring game show called The Dirty Dozens where contestants had to come up with insults.
In 2004, the Wayans Brothers, comedians Keenen Ivory Wayans
, Shawn Wayans, and Damon Wayans
, released The Dozens, a Dozens game for mobile phone
s. The movies White Men Can't Jump
, 8 Mile
, and House Party
include exchanges of snaps. In addition to that, the MTV
"reality-TV" series Yo Momma, which stars Wilmer Valderrama
(of That '70s Show
fame) is entirely focused around coming up with "the dozens" to say to an opponent.
In 2008, the hip-hop group Hot Stylz released the single "Lookin Boy
", whose lyrics comprise a game of the dozens. In this song, the game is referred to as Lookin' Boy, as each insult is of the form "You are an <insult
> lookin' boy."
The 2010 satirical Chinese machinima
War of Internet Addiction
includes a cross-cultural example of poetic verbal dueling using the form of classic Chinese couplets
at the 7:24 mark.
referenced the dozens in his 1975 comedy routine That Nigger's Crazy saying that "white folks" did not know how to play.
Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy
often based his stand-up routines on a reversal of the dozens, the purpose of which was boasting about one's own self rather than insulting someone else. Examples of this can be found in his known comedy albums, Comedian, Delirious
, and the soundtrack to the film Eddie Murphy Raw
. Other examples of the dozens in reverse, from other comedians, can be found in the cable TV program Def Comedy Jam
, which was a production of Def Jam founder Russell Simmons
's company.
George Carlin
also referenced the dozens in his Occupation: Foole
album while talking about his upbringing in Manhattan: "You wanna play the dozens?/Well the dozens is a game/But the way I fuck your mothers /Is a goddamned shame."
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a competition of often good-natured insults. They take turns "cracking," "snapping," "ribbing" or insulting on—one another, their adversary's mother or other family member until one of them has no comeback. This is called playing the dozens or doin' the dozens, and sometimes dirty dozens. The dozens is a contest of personal power—of wit, self-control, verbal ability, mental agility and mental toughness. Each putdown, each "snap", ups the ante. Defeat can be humiliating, but a skilled contender, win or lose, may gain respect. The dozens is one of the contributing elements in the development of hip hop
Roots of hip hop
Hip hop music is an element within Hip hop culture, which includes MCing, DJing, graffiti and b-boying. Hip hop music originated within early-1970s block parties in New York City, specifically African American sections of The Bronx, as an alternative to ethnic gangs that proliferated during that era...
, especially the practice of battling.
The dozens can be a harmless game, or, if tempers flare, a prelude to violence. While the competition, on its face, is usually light-hearted, smiles sometimes mask real tensions. But in its purest form, the dozens is part of an African-American custom of verbal sparring, of woofin'
Wolf ticket
Wolf ticket is an African-American slang term meaning a verbal threat, criticism, or insult. The term originates from woofing, meaning aimless talk, an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of dogs barking...
and signifyin', intended to defuse conflict nonviolently, descended from an oral tradition rooted in traditional West African cultures.
"Yo mama", or "yo madra" are common, widely recognized argumentative rejoinder in African-American vernacular speech, is a cryptic and sometimes comical allusion to the dozens. An example would be, "Yo momma is so fat she follows Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
!"
History
The term the dozens is believed to refer to the devaluing on the auction block of slaves who were past their prime, who were deformed, aged or who, after years of back-breaking toil, no longer were capable of hard labor. These enslaved human beings often were sold by the dozen. In African American Oral Traditions in Louisiana, African American author and professor Mona Lisa Saloy writes:Author John Leland describes an alternate etymology. He writes that it is a modern survival of an English verb—"to dozen"—dating back at least to the fourteenth century and meaning "to stun, stupefy, daze" or "to make insensible, torpid, powerless." The object of the game is to stupefy and daze with swift and skillful speech.
In 1929, the boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...
pianist Speckled Red
Speckled Red
Speckled Red was born Rufus Perryman in Monroe, Louisiana. He was an American blues and boogie-woogie piano player and singer, most noted for his recordings of "The Dirty Dozens", with exchanges of insults and vulgar remarks that have long been a part of African American folklore.The family moved...
recorded a song entitled "The Dirty Dozen" which includes lyrics such as "I like yo' momma—sister, too/I did like your poppa—but your poppa would not do./I met your poppa on the corner the other day/I soon found out he was funny that way." (Kokomo Arnold
Kokomo Arnold
Kokomo Arnold was an American blues musician.Born as James Arnold in Lovejoy's Station, Georgia, he got his nickname in 1934 after releasing "Old Original Kokomo Blues" for the Decca label; it was a cover of the Scrapper Blackwell blues song about the city of Kokomo, Indiana...
, one of the most popular American blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musicians of the 1930s, also recorded much the same song under the title "The Twelves" in 1935.)
In 1959, Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
released "Say Man" on Checker 931
Checker Records
Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death.The label...
(with "The Clock Strikes Twelve" as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
), which featured him trading insults with his percussionist Jerome Green. The lyrics are not sung, but spoken conversationally over a musical background; this track has been described as a precursor of rap
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
.
The sketch show In Living Color
In Living Color
In Living Color is an American sketch comedy television series, which originally ran on the Fox Network from April 15, 1990 to May 19, 1994. Brothers Keenen and Damon Wayans created, wrote, and starred in the program. The show was produced by Ivory Way Productions in association with 20th Century...
featured a recurring game show called The Dirty Dozens where contestants had to come up with insults.
In 2004, the Wayans Brothers, comedians Keenen Ivory Wayans
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Keenen Ivory Wayans is an American actor, comedian, director and writer known as the host and creator of the FOX sketch comedy series In Living Color, which also starred Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, brothers Damon Wayans, Shawn Wayans and Marlon Wayans, sister Kim Wayans, David Alan Grier, Tommy...
, Shawn Wayans, and Damon Wayans
Damon Wayans
Damon Kyle Wayans is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor, one of the Wayans brothers.-Early life:Wayans was born in New York City, New York, the son of Elvira, a homemaker and social worker, and Howell Wayans, a supermarket manager...
, released The Dozens, a Dozens game for mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s. The movies White Men Can't Jump
White Men Can't Jump
White Men Can't Jump is a 1992 American sports comedy drama film starring Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes as streetball hustlers, co-starring Rosie Perez...
, 8 Mile
8 Mile (film)
8 Mile is a 2002 American hip-hop drama film written by Scott Silver, directed by Curtis Hanson, and starring Eminem, Mekhi Phifer, Brittany Murphy, and Kim Basinger....
, and House Party
House Party (film)
House Party is a 1990 American comedy film released by New Line Cinema. It stars Kid and Play of the popular hip hop duo Kid 'n Play, and also stars Paul Anthony, Bow-Legged Lou, and B-Fine from Full Force, and Robin Harris . The film also starred Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, A.J...
include exchanges of snaps. In addition to that, the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
"reality-TV" series Yo Momma, which stars Wilmer Valderrama
Wilmer Valderrama
Wilmer Eduardo Valderrama is an American actor and television personality, known for the role of Fez in the sitcom That '70s Show, hosting the MTV series Yo Momma, and voicing the character of Manny in the children's show Handy Manny.-Early life:Valderrama was born in Miami, Florida the son of...
(of That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
fame) is entirely focused around coming up with "the dozens" to say to an opponent.
In 2008, the hip-hop group Hot Stylz released the single "Lookin Boy
Lookin Boy
"Lookin' Boy is the first single released by the rap group Hotstylz from their album Yo Mamma Got A Mustache. The single features Yung Joc. The song is a game that derives from The dozens, but instead replaces the classic "Your Mama" opening references, with quips ending with the closing reference...
", whose lyrics comprise a game of the dozens. In this song, the game is referred to as Lookin' Boy, as each insult is of the form "You are an <insult
Insult
An insult is an expression, statement which is considered degrading and offensive. Insults may be intentional or accidental...
> lookin' boy."
The 2010 satirical Chinese machinima
Machinima
Machinima is the use of real-time 3D computer graphics rendering engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation...
War of Internet Addiction
War of Internet Addiction
War of Internet Addiction is an anti-censorship machinima advocacy production on behalf of the mainland Chinese World of Warcraft community, aesthetically notable for being made entirely in in-universe style...
includes a cross-cultural example of poetic verbal dueling using the form of classic Chinese couplets
Duilian
In Chinese poetry, a couplet is a pair of lines of poetry which adhere to certain rules . Outside of poems, they are usually seen on the sides of doors leading to people's homes or as hanging scrolls in an interior...
at the 7:24 mark.
In comedy
Richard PryorRichard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, writer and MC. Pryor was known for uncompromising examinations of racism and topical contemporary issues, which employed colorful vulgarities, and profanity, as well as racial epithets...
referenced the dozens in his 1975 comedy routine That Nigger's Crazy saying that "white folks" did not know how to play.
Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
often based his stand-up routines on a reversal of the dozens, the purpose of which was boasting about one's own self rather than insulting someone else. Examples of this can be found in his known comedy albums, Comedian, Delirious
Eddie Murphy Delirious
Delirious is a stand-up comedy television special starring Eddie Murphy. The 70-minute show, released in 1983, showcases his most racy material. The word "fuck" is used a total of 230 times, and "shit" is used 171 times. It was recorded on August 17, 1983 at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.....
, and the soundtrack to the film Eddie Murphy Raw
Eddie Murphy Raw
Eddie Murphy Raw is an American stand-up comedy film directed by Robert Townsend and starring Eddie Murphy. It was Murphy's second feature stand-up video, following Eddie Murphy Delirious...
. Other examples of the dozens in reverse, from other comedians, can be found in the cable TV program Def Comedy Jam
Def Comedy Jam
Def Comedy Jam is a HBO television series produced by Russell Simmons. The series had its original run from July 1, 1992 to January 1, 1997. The show returned on HBO's fall lineup in 2006. Def Comedy Jam helped to launch the careers of several African-American stand-up comedians...
, which was a production of Def Jam founder Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons
-External links:** * * * * * * from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum* *...
's company.
George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
also referenced the dozens in his Occupation: Foole
Occupation: Foole
Occupation: Foole is the fourth album released by United States comedian George Carlin. It was recorded on March 2 and 3, 1973 at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, and released in October of that year...
album while talking about his upbringing in Manhattan: "You wanna play the dozens?/Well the dozens is a game/But the way I fuck your mothers /Is a goddamned shame."
See also
- Avoidance speechAvoidance speechAvoidance speech, or "mother-in-law languages", is a feature of many Australian Aboriginal languages and some North American languages and Bantu languages of Africa whereby in the presence of certain relatives it is taboo to use everyday speech style, and instead a special speech style must be...
(mother-in-law languages) - Call and responseCall and responseCall and response is a form of "spontaneous verbal and non-verbal interaction between speaker and listener in which all of the statements are punctuated by expressions from the listener."...
- Diss trackDiss trackA diss track or diss song is a song primarily intended to disparage or insult another person or group. While musical parodies and attacks have always existed, the trend became increasingly common in the hip hop genre as part of the hip hop rivalry phenomenon...
- ExtempoExtempoExtempo is a lyrically improvised form of calypso and is most notably practised in Trinidad and Tobago. It consists of a performer improvising in song or in rhythmic speech on a given theme before an audience who themselves take turns to perform...
- Mother insult
- Roast (comedy)Roast (comedy)A roast is an event in which an individual is subjected to a public presentation of comedic insults, praise, outlandish true and untrue stories, and heartwarming tributes, the implication being that the roastee is able to take the jokes in good humor and not as serious criticism or insult, and...
- SanankuyaSanankuyaSanankuya refers to a social characteristic present especially among the Mande peoples of Mali, as well as many West African societies in general, often described in English with terms such as "cousinage", "joking relationship", etc..In addition to sanankuya relationships that are pre-established...
- Wolf ticketWolf ticketWolf ticket is an African-American slang term meaning a verbal threat, criticism, or insult. The term originates from woofing, meaning aimless talk, an onomatopoeic reference to the sound of dogs barking...