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Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
A character goes to make a perfectly polite, helpful gesture, or perhaps simply a [[Rule of Cool|cool]] one, and ends up making a rather unfortunate rude or shocking one instead. Maybe someone punching the air or pointing keeps their hand open while doing it, resulting in [[Those Wacky Nazis|the Nazi salute]], or someone using the peace sign ends up swearing at the people behind them. (This one only applies to British characters, or oblivious foreign ones.) Alternatively, a clap on the back may be taken as a genuine attack, resulting in the well-meaning character getting clobbered.
Bonus points if this results in a [[Not What It Looks Like]] moment. For Western viewers, [[Bicep-Polishing Gesture]] is likely to be this. Also the [["V" Sign]]. Compare [[Nonverbal Miscommunication]] and [[Crazy Cultural Comparison]].
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' story has a man whose hand is trapped in the middle finger extended position. This being [[Crapsack World|Mega-City One]], his attempts to hide this only make things worse. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
== [[Film]] ==
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* In ''[[Rat Race]]'', Jon Lovitz' character burns his middle finger at one point. He airs it out. [[Hilarity Ensues]], naturally.
** Long story short it ends with [[Refuge in Audacity|him driving Hitler's car into a group of WWII vets while he has a Hitler mustache (lipstick smear), a burnt tongue so he sounds like he's speaking German, and he is giving all of them the middle finger.]]
* In ''[[Scary Movie]] 3'', the white rapper puts on the hood in his sweater in front of a black audience, and it ends up looking like a Klan hood. He salutes the crowd, in what looks like a Nazi salute. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
* In ''[[Hamlet 2]]'', the main character gets his middle finger hurt and has to keep it elevated in one of those splint-casts.
* In [[Airplane!]], Ted's attempt to get along with some African tribesmen starts well, with him showing the chief how to shake hands. When he tries a "high five" gesture, however, the chief takes offense and punches him.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Scrubs]]'', JD tries to punch the air in the "Booyah!!" style to the deaf father of a deaf patient, as the Janitor was making the relay in sign language for them. He doesn't really make a fist as much as... Well, the Janitor calmly says "[[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi salute]]."
* ''[[Friends]]'': Rachel goes to shake the hand of her prospective employer, and accidentally grabs his penis. ([[It Makes Sense in Context]].)
** Ross also tries to tell his British fiancee "time out," with hand gesture. Offended, she says "up yours too!"
* ''[[Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip]]'': the plastic Santa the show has put up for its Christmas show is supposed to be waving but is giving the Nazi salute.
* On ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'', Picard recounts a story in which he tried to greet an alien ambassador with one of her culture's hand gestures, but ended up accidentally propositioning her instead.
** Once, when negotiating with a culture where body language was as important as words, [[Star Trek: Voyager|Janeway]] almost caused a diplomatic incident by putting her hands on her hips, a deadly insult. Fortunately Neelix was there to pour oil on the waves.
* Happens in an episode of ''[[Father Ted]]''. He's ranting about something entirely innocuous, but someone sees him from outside, and the confluence of a small rectangular black mark on the window which appears to them to be directly below his nose, and his repeated hand gestures, make him look like Hitler.
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'': Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt raises his hand in a...familiar way...to indicate to his shareholders that their stock will rise "high". The fact that his upper lip is smeared with ink in the middle doesn't help.
** And wears a riding suit. And says "We WILL annex Poland by the Spring, at any cost!" ([[It Makes Sense in Context]], I swear.)
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* One episode of ''[[Are You Being Served?|Are You Being Served]]'' has a mechanical Santa Claus who opens his arms wide to give children hugs. Problem: the arms are stitched to the coat (and apparently can't be cut away without irrevocable damage). So when Santa opens his arms... Making it worse is that the robot also says, "Ho, ho, ho, little boy! [[Accidental Innuendo|Have I got a surprise for you!]]" (Fortunately, the robot is a mannequin under the coat. It still makes Mr. Humphries faint.)
** Subverted in another episode, where Mrs Slocombe gives Captain Peacock the "two fingered salute". Mr Rumbold thinks she is just trying to prevent Captain Peacock from sticking his finger up her nose. (Again, [[It Makes Sense in Context]].)
* Example from ''[[Community]]'' episode [[Community/Recap/S1
{{quote|'''Shirley:''' Shake them in your mind!}}
* A first season episode of ''[[JAG]]'' had Meg tell a story about how her Italian boyfriend got very confused by the "hook'em horns" sign being made by everyone at a University of Austin football game she took him to. (To many Europeans, the exact same gesture means "I'm screwing your wife.")
* On ''[[The Goodies]]'', Tim (as [[Winston Churchill]]), gives the "two fingered salute" gesture when he was actually indicating that he wanted a cigar. Graeme then has the idea of turning his hand around to create the iconic "V for Victory" symbol.
* In an episode of ''[[Farscape]]'', the crew land on Earth and hide out in an abandoned house in the USA. They find a photo of someone making the Middle Finger gesture, and believe it to be a greeting. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as they go out and meet the neighbours.
== [[Magazines]] ==
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== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Dilbert]]'', Dilbert became a boss and enjoyed his newfound ability to command his underlings with a wave of his hand. However, they misinterpreted his wave and threw a guy out the window.
* In ''[[Zits]]'', Jeremy injures his middle finger and is told by the school nurse to keep it elevated. After an off-panel "Same to you, Duncan!", she hurriedly adds, "On second thought, maybe don't keep it elevated".
== [[Theater]] ==
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* A recent ''[[Girls with Slingshots]]'' has an envisioning of Chris the Pirate's sweet attempts to speak ASL going horribly wrong as he places his fingers in an attempt to sign "I love you" but does the sign for [[wikipedia:Shocker (hand gesture)|"The Shocker"]] instead.
** Although, on the bright side, that would probably just give Melody ideas.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* One ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' story homages ''[[Around the World in Eighty Days]]'', and Pinky explains a bunch of offensive gestures (which are actually nonsense) in the country they arrive at to Brain, who winds up doing all of them at the wrong time because (1) he never even paid attention to Pinky, and (2) he was being swarmed by bees at the time. Cue the awkward hand swatting.
* When the ''[[Storm Hawks]]'' visit Terra Wallop, they accidentally discover that extending both hands palms outward towards someone - the typical 'calm down' gesture - means "I am challenging you to a duel".
* An episode of ''[[The Wild Thornberrys]]'' has Eliza and Darwin visiting a group of chimps, with Darwin telling her she has to be careful about the gestures she makes. Eliza doesn't listen and inadvertently ends up insulting one chimp, and challenging the other to a fight for dominance.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Some people unfamiliar with the [[Bicep-Polishing Gesture]] often wonder why the guy is telling his friends "Up yours".
* Raising your thumb is an insulting gesture in the Middle East. Travellers there, avoid giving people the thumbs up sign... and hitchhikers should beware this especially. Several pictures of Iraqis giving US troops the thumbs up were misinterpreted as "being greeted as liberators".
** Another gesture that has resulted in unfortunate misunderstandings is the fact that in the Middle East people engage each other in conversation by leaning in very close to show that you are giving the person your full attention. Unfortunately, in the Western world this is taken as an aggressive in-your-face gesture, which has resulted in American soldiers shoving away or counter-threatening what they perceive is a hostile person--to the confusion and/or outrage of the other.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZiCNVcvls0 Sometimes head-banging can go wrong in so many ways...]
* In American Sign Language, one quick way to say "bathroom" is to make the sign language "T" (Thumb between the pointer and middle fingers in a closed fist) and wave it gently side to side. Unfortunately, in Germany, that same sign is the equivalent to flipping the middle finger. Double unfortunate if someone German asks where your friend went and he had gone to the bathroom.
** In Korea (South of course, silly...) it's almost the same, you only move your finger one to the left. Effectively flipping somebody off in the process.
** Almost the same in the Russian-speaking world, minus the wave, although the middle finger is becoming more popular thanks to Hollywood, while the closed fist-like gesture is being relegated to being only mildly insulting.
* The Peace symbol of the first and second fingers, if held up palm inward, is quite rude in England, and the rest of the UK for that matter. (The apocryphal story about archers during the Hundred Years War is involved but untrue.) Palm outward is fine.
** Hilariously Margaret Thatcher accidentally did this after she had been elected as the Prime Minister of the UK. Cue tabloids showing her flipping off the British people.
** Also considered rude in Australia - when George Bush Sr. visited Australia in '92 he attempted to make the peace sign to a bunch of Canberra farmers, and mistakenly flipped them the V instead. Though as the peace sign is made with palm facing inward or outward in the US, he probably didn't understand why the farmers got so angry...
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