"Yo Mama" jokes have a long and varied history in England.
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ye olde Mission Statement
Many of you may know of the Internet phenomenon that is LOLCats. Slightly less of you may know how crazy/awesome early modern woodcut illustrations and frontispieces can be. But what joins these two disparate worlds? Well, it may surprise you to know how popular LOL-ing was in the Renaissance. To wit:
--Troilus and Cressida (1.3.163-5)Shakespearean proof you can't refute! Welcome to LOL Manuscripts!
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(P.S. I know they aren't all "manuscripts," but LOL Early Modern Printed Materials didn't have the same ring to it. LOLNomenclature! Let it go.)
"The large Achilles, on his press'd bed lolling, / From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; / Cries 'Excellent!'"
--Troilus and Cressida (1.3.163-5)Shakespearean proof you can't refute! Welcome to LOL Manuscripts!
-----------------------------------------
(P.S. I know they aren't all "manuscripts," but LOL Early Modern Printed Materials didn't have the same ring to it. LOLNomenclature! Let it go.)
The (original) Inspiration: LOLCAT Macros
Sundry Other Good Links
- Early English Books Online (EEBO)
- English Broadside Ballad Archive
- Shakespeare in Quarto
- Rare Book Room
- EEBO Text Creation Partnership
- Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text & Image
- Pepys' Diary
- Old Baily Online
- The English Emblem Book Project
- Shakespeare Searched
- Shakespearean Insulter
- Literary Makeovers!!!
- Tyrannosaurus Art
- Book-A-Minute
- Married to the Sea
- Sarah on Twitter
Blog Archive
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2007
(49)
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November
(11)
- Behold Rome's monster on his monstrous beast! 1643
- A Mad Crue, or, That shall be Tryde, 1625
- A Dog's Elegy, or, Rupert's Tears, 1644
- The beginning and endynge of all popery, or popish...
- A brefe chronycle concernynge the examinacyon and ...
- The beginning and endynge of all popery, or popish...
- An excellent new medley, 1625
- The Braue English Iipsie, 1625
- The Answer to the London lasses folly: or, The new...
- November the 5. 1605, The Quintessence of Cruelty,...
- A declaration demonstrating and infallibly proving...
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▼
November
(11)
Hamlet (an LOLCat Translation)
2 BE, OR NOT 2 BE : DAT IZ TEH QUESHUN:
WHETHR TIS NOBLR IN DA MIND 2 SUFFR
TEH SLINGS AN ARROWS OV OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE,
OR 2 TAEK ARMS AGAINST SEA OV TROUBLEZ, AN BY OPPOSIN END DEM?
2 DYE: 2 SLEEP;
NO MOAR; AN BY SLEEP 2 SAY WE END
TEH HART-AYKE AN TEH THOUSAND NACHURAL SHOCKZ
DAT FLESH IZ HEIR 2, TIS CONSUMMASHUN
DEVOUTLY 2 BE WISHD. 2 DYE, 2 SLEEP;
2 SLEEP: PERCHANCE 2 DREAM: AY, THARS TEH RUB;
4 IN DAT SLEEP OV DEATH WUT DREAMS CUD COME
WHEN WE HAS SHUFFLD OFF DIS MORTAL COIL,
MUST GIV US PAUSE: THARS TEH RESPECT
DAT MAKEZ CALAMITY OV SO LONG LIFE...
WHETHR TIS NOBLR IN DA MIND 2 SUFFR
TEH SLINGS AN ARROWS OV OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE,
OR 2 TAEK ARMS AGAINST SEA OV TROUBLEZ, AN BY OPPOSIN END DEM?
2 DYE: 2 SLEEP;
NO MOAR; AN BY SLEEP 2 SAY WE END
TEH HART-AYKE AN TEH THOUSAND NACHURAL SHOCKZ
DAT FLESH IZ HEIR 2, TIS CONSUMMASHUN
DEVOUTLY 2 BE WISHD. 2 DYE, 2 SLEEP;
2 SLEEP: PERCHANCE 2 DREAM: AY, THARS TEH RUB;
4 IN DAT SLEEP OV DEATH WUT DREAMS CUD COME
WHEN WE HAS SHUFFLD OFF DIS MORTAL COIL,
MUST GIV US PAUSE: THARS TEH RESPECT
DAT MAKEZ CALAMITY OV SO LONG LIFE...
About the Author
- Sarah Redmond
- Erstwhile PhD student in Renaissance studies, then I got an MLS. LOL Manuscripts is how I amuse myself as I scour EEBO for research. I'm pretty confident that it will be accepted as my dissertation.
2 comments:
Ah yes? Well, THY mother hath bounteous virtue and pulchritude...in the Antipodes!
/got nothin'
I like it...I was having a difficult time thinking of an appropriate early modern "yo mama" joke.
I do like how, once again, your joke hinges on a pun. Bravo, Doug.
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