Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: Difference between revisions

== [[Literature]] ==

* From ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/And Another Thing|And Another Thing]]'' by [[Eoin Colfer]]:

* Briefly discussed in ''[[Help I'm Trapped]] In An Alien's Body!'' in which the protagonist, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|in an alien's body due to a]] [[Freaky Friday Flip]], still serves his position as goalie in his soccer game. At some point he notices two other aliens watching off to the side, and they wave at him every time he sees them. He then begins worrying about it, because "Sure, waving is friendly on Earth, but maybe where they come from, it means 'We're gonna kill you!'"

* Also lampshaded in ''[[Discworld]]'', where inter-species communication has always been difficult. Apparently for trolls, saying hello involves a firm smack on the head, while a friendly handshake is actually an severe insult to their mother.

** In ''The Last Continent'', Rincewind has just [[It Makes Sense in Context|been magically aided by a talking kangaroo to impressively win a sheep-shearing contest]]. The losers timidly try to explain that they can't exactly pay off the bet they made with him, and Rincewind tries to reassure them with a friendly "No worries" type gesture. Unfortunately, he does so while holding the shears he was just going wild with, so it comes off as rather more intimidating than he intended.

** In the Made For TV version of [[The Colour of Magic (film)|The Colour of Magic]], Twoflower's handbook warns him that making a 2 with your index and middle fingers is rude if the back of the hand is facing forward but palm side is fine. Unfortunately he didn't read that until after using it when talking the bartender.

** 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 E08 Home Economics|Home Economics]], Annie does a had shaking gesture that is highly suggestive.

* 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.

* 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.

* In the [[Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness|Kung Fu Panda]] holiday special, Po discovers that many of his duties as the Dragon Warrior involving setting up the annual holiday ceremony are themselves very nearly ceremonies in their own right. When he's sampling foods to choose who will do the catering, Monkey passes by and waves hello; when Po returns the wave, everyone ''flips out'' and the chef he's talking to just about swears eternal revenge. It turns out that waving in that exact manner, with that hand, is the ceremonial signal for utter rejection; that the Dragon Warrior has found the food ''so abominable'' that the chef's entire village is essentially kicked out of China in disgrace.