Double Snaps

by James Percelay

The phenomenally successful best-seller Snaps was the first book to present the unique African American art of comic insult. Also known as signifying, joning, and playing the dozens, snapping is a treasured part of the African American cultural heritage. In this all-new book, there are more than 450 twice as funny, twice as rough, and twice as outrageous. In addition to Fat, Stupid, Ugly, Poor, and Sex Snaps (among other categories), there is now a whole section of snaps so rude they needed their own Nasty Snaps. You don't need to have read Snaps to laugh out loud at Double Snaps - you just need friends whose mothers are so fat, they live in two zip codes.

Genres: Humor

Paperback

First published January 23, 1995

Reviews

[Sparrow .]

I love the adjective “double,“ most often seen in names of Chinese restaurants, such as “Double Dragon“ or “Double Luck No. 1.”

In my housing project, we called these ironic assaults “sound-downs.“ (This was Dyckman Houses, where Kareem Abdul Jabbar lived before that was his name.) Here’s the page I opened to:

Your nose is so big, when you breathe you inhale the curtains.

Your car is so small, the radio is in the backseat.

You mothers ears are so big, she can hear the clouds.

Your mother is so big, she was standing on the corner and the police said, “Hey, break it up!”

Notice how visual these stylized insults are — like degrading little videos. Are “snaps” the true American haiku?