Hands Go Down: Difference between revisions

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{{cleanup|This trope has been moved back to the Trope Workshop because it is marked as needing a better description. The page needs a description that's longer than three sentences long.}}

A character, usually a [[Schoolteachers|School Teacher]], makes a comment or asks a question, prompting others to raise their hands. Someone (usually the original speaker) changes the question ("… but ''without'' using your computer?") or adds a comment ("No, the answer isn't "cheese"), which causes the hands to go down, implying that the hand-raisers' next statements were very predictable. Usually [[Played for Laughs]].

A trope that plays on the ignorance, [[Small Reference Pools]] or limited/differing concerns of some person or group. A figure of some authority -- often a [[Schoolteachers|School Teacher]] -- makes an attempt to communicate an important point. They may then solicit questions, or find their listeners have questions they wish to ask when he takes a breath -- hands go up. Anticipating the nature of the listeners' questions, someone -- usually the original speaker, but not always -- then refines the question or context. ("… but ''without'' using your computer?" "No, the answer isn't "cheese".)

'''Hands go down.'''

The implication is that the listeners' questions are painfully predictable to the speaker, due to their [[Too Dumb to Live|intelligence]] or [[Cloudcuckoolander|personal preoccupations]]. Sometimes the refinement of the context takes place in several steps, as the speaker finds they have to exclude even more extreme or ridiculous conditions in the hopes of eliciting a meaningful observation or question from their listeners. At each stage more hands go down, until finally no hands are left up at all.

Usually [[Played for Laughs]].