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Motherfucker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Motherfucker (also existing in countless contracted forms e.g. mofo, muthafucka, or shortened to just "mother") is a common insult and profanity in American English and in other varieties of the English language. The term, widely viewed as an obscenity, enjoys a wide usage through varying connotations.
It can be used positively, example:
| “ | Johnny, you are one smart motherfucker. | ” |
In a neutral fashion:
| “ | I'm throwing a mad party all up in this motherfucker. | ” |
Or as an explicit profanity:
| “ | Motherfucker! My cupcake has been burglarized. | ” |
Despite these use variations, the word's literal meaning is a pejorative: denotating that they engage in sexual intercourse with their mother. Because of this, it is most commonly used as a personal insult, although it's literal meaning has diminished, as the word is commonly used to describe someone with any number of problems, such as being an idiot or backstabber and thus not necessarily having any real accusation of incest.
The word can also be combined with the word "bad" to mean a man who is physically threatening, or involved in other dangerous activities.
For example:
| “ | The Special Forces are some badass motherfuckers. | ” |
The reason for its use in music derives from jazz, though in jazz it is not pervasive. Many consider "Motherfucker" to be one of the most offensive profanities in the English language. A study published in 2000 found that British people consider it second only to "cunt" in severity.[1]
In the 1960s and 1970s, the initials M.F. became a common, less explicit substitute for the term. It is also another way to say bitch, of the meaning about a difficult situation.
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The term and its congeners are originally North American slang, whence it spread to other varieties of English. The earliest record of the noun "motherfucker" dates back to 1918. All other senses and forms are also first recorded in the 20th century. For example, "Jim Stevens, you motherfucker!" (Oxford English Dictionary; online version).
The literal meaning of this word is "one who engages in sexual intercourse with his mother". It could also mean "one who engages in sexual intercourse with someone else's mother, a friend's mother, or a girlfriend's mother". It can be used as a taunt or crude insult, as in sleeping with another person's mother. It can also be used to call someone a mama's boy. Since the meaning is so offensive, this word is mostly used during crude arguments.
The term was used in the 1960s in reference to a talented musician, e.g. "that guy is a real motherfucker, man". Frank Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention, were originally called The Mothers (shortened term for motherfucker), but their record label refused to publish them under that name, and so it was changed.
The term can also be shortened to MoFo. This variation stems from the urban hip hop culture. This is seen as a less offensive use of the term and is suitable for television. For example, "Dan Evans is one fly Mofo."
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The term is frequently used in pop culture, appearing over 200 times each[citation needed] in the films Menace II Society, GoodFellas, and Pulp Fiction.
The term was used by jazz artist Thelonious Monk in the film documentary, Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser, expressing how much he liked the pants that one of his band members was wearing, stating "those are some bad motherfuckers."
Martha Wainwright's album "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" uses the adjectival form of the phrase both literally (as being about the one who had sex with her mother) and pejoratively to disparage the parenting abilities of her father, Loudon Wainwright III.
Mofo is the title of the third track from U2's ninth album Pop. The track was released as the sixth and final single off the album.
The term has been used in the Portuguese show O Homem que Mordeu o Cão, where it's applied to a character (one of the first roles played by the famous comedian Ricardo Araújo Pereira) named Bad Boy MC Crazy Motherfucker, a black man who is beaten up by the people in his neighborhood for being a sissy. That character's original name is Cláudio Miguel, but he says that the people kicked him when he introduced himself, so he changed it to Bad Boy MC Crazy Motherfucker ("Bad Boy so that people don't mess with me; MC, the letters popped into my head; and Crazy Motherfucker because it sounds nice.")
The action movie Die Hard and its three sequels all have the catchphrase uttered by John McClane (Bruce Willis), "Yippie-kai-yay, motherfucker", although in the third sequel, Live Free or Die Hard, the line is censored to obtain a PG-13 rating. The line can be later heard completely in the Unrated DVD.
The Portuguese band Da Weasel named their first album, launched in 1993, More Than 30 Motherfuckers. All the songs of this album were sung in English.
Near the end of the film American Wedding, a character mistakenly has sex with a friend's grandmother. During the titular wedding, he is referred to as "grandmotherfucker."
African-American actor/comedian Chris Rock uses the phrase quite often in stand-up comedy performances and movie roles. He is known to use it with an angry and quite nasal tone. The word "Muthafucka" was used 52 times in his most recent stand-up comedy, Bigger and Blacker.
The word appears in George Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say On Television. In one HBO special, he comments that at one point, someone asked him to remove it, since, as a derivative of the word "fuck," it constituted a duplication.[2] He has since added it back, claiming that the bit's rhythm doesn't work without it.[2]
The song "Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker), Pt. 2" appears on the Lou Reed album Set the Twilight Reeling.
There is a cocktail named "Adios Motherfucker".
In the movie Snakes on a Plane, the catchphrase was "Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
- Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
- MC5, for the controversy over the band's use of the term in the introduction to their song "Kick Out The Jams".
- "Theme from Shaft", performed by Isaac Hayes.
- ^ Hargrave, Andrea Millwood (2000). Delete Expletives? London: Advertising Standards Authority, British Broadcasting Corporation, Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission.
- ^ a b Carlin, George. On Location: George Carlin at Phoenix [DVD]. HBO Home Video.
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