Meaning
What does You Are Not The Father mean?
You are not the father! – a catchphrase that was popularized by the American tabloid TV Show, titled The Maury Povich Show.
The concept of the talk show was to resolve domestic disputes, often involving the method of conducting paternity tests on the guests.
Once a test turned out to be negative, a ceremony would take place where the host Maury Povich would announce the result with the sentence “You are not the father!”. This was often followed by a delightful ovation and relieved celebration on the previously supposed father’s side.
Origin
What's the origin of You Are Not The Father?
The Maury Povich Show had its debut in 1991. Since then, the show has aired in American TV channels through 24 seasons.
Involving paternity tests was always a recurrent element of the show.
However, the catchphrase You are not the father did not become a meme until an episode in 2005.
That episode featured Andrew and his ex-girlfriend, who claimed that Andrew is the father of her child. This turned out to be false. After Maury announced “Andrew, you are NOT the father”, Andrew started to use break dance elements to express his joy.
Spread & Usage
How did You Are Not The Father spread?
The discussed episode was made into various animated GIFs and remixes, initially on the memetic hub site YTMND.
Later the original episode’s now infamous segment was also uploaded on YouTube.
Since then, “you are not the father” has been added on various encyclopedia sites like Urban Dictionary or Wikipedia.
