Making quote signs in the air - "Classic" or "Dud"?

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Useful way to express "precisely" what you mean, or annoying distraction from what is being said?

― http://itsb.ucsf.edu/~vcr/APDrEvilLaser.gif, Sunday, 8 August 2004 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

It's an abomination.

― MarkH (MarkH), Sunday, 8 August 2004 09:30 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not really the kinda thing this generation gets up to.

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Sunday, 8 August 2004 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

it's post ironic, so now you can do it to be ironic about people who would do it.

― aimurchie, Sunday, 8 August 2004 10:33 (twenty-one years ago)

no, you can't.

― cºzen (Cozen), Sunday, 8 August 2004 10:35 (twenty-one years ago)

please.

― cºzen (Cozen), Sunday, 8 August 2004 10:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Dud of colossal proportions.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Sunday, 8 August 2004 11:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's one of those things that becomes more and more classic the more people get angry about it.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 August 2004 11:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Very dud but also very useful. If someone does it you know there's no point ever talking to them again.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 8 August 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i want to see more commas and semicolons coming up in hand language.

― aimurchie, Sunday, 8 August 2004 13:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to see more hands coming up in colons

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 8 August 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

You have a bright future on a new Muppet Show.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 8 August 2004 13:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I do parenthesis sometimes.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 8 August 2004 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i think you mean Sesame Street, Ned.

― aimurchie, Sunday, 8 August 2004 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh..you mean PUPPETS, not grammar. Did i spell either of those words right? Oh my, oh well

― aimurchie, Sunday, 8 August 2004 13:55 (twenty-one years ago)

"better" to "do" it on the words "that" don't require emphasis

― kyle (akmonday), Sunday, 8 August 2004 14:35 (twenty-one years ago)

What about a wac-a-day style W for "whatever"?

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 8 August 2004 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

my 7th grade teacher did this compulsively

― ||amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 8 August 2004 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

First time I saw this was on Gremlins 2.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 8 August 2004 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Lloyd Dobler to thread.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Sunday, 8 August 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I do it, sometimes. Dud.

― Cathy (Cathy), Sunday, 8 August 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I do it around concepts, phrases or sentences that are actual quotes. Then I say (year, page number) or (Ibid.) Oh god, it's half true... possibly classic.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Sunday, 8 August 2004 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

what hand sign to you make to signify "Ibid."?

― ||amateur!st|| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's more whole body sign - kind of like a double-take.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Monday, 9 August 2004 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I think in the interests of completeness we could make *all* the punctuation marks in the air.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 9 August 2004 06:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been known to say "comma".

― Huck, Monday, 9 August 2004 06:42 (twenty-one years ago)

when girls do it it makes it looks as if they have bunny ears, therefore classic.

i make maths symbols in the air with my hands sometimes, like "less than three" or something, aw.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 August 2004 06:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"what hand sign to you make to signify "Ibid."?"

You could just raise your hand up to the side of your face like you're in an auction. You know, "I bid"

― Bumfluff, Monday, 9 August 2004 06:53 (twenty-one years ago)

So do Francophones go > ?

― sgs (sgs), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:21 (twenty-one years ago)

er, < < > >

― sgs (sgs), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I like to think that Francophones actually mime putting a hat on when they use a circumflex and make a wiggly snake movement when they use a cedilla.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

one francophone girl once broke paul simon's heart with her cedilla.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

and Germans poke people's eyes out with their 2 fingered crazy umlauts.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:31 (twenty-one years ago)

tuomas to threåd

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.geocities.com/motivatedmayo/

― weather1ngda1eson (Brian), Monday, 9 August 2004 07:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i think it's ok, so longs as U don't do the bending fingers approach, but do the waving straight fingers thing. former: Q magazing "circa" 1995, latter: modern and authorititive.

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Monday, 9 August 2004 11:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a teacher who always used to do this. Fucking hell.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 9 August 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

It's useful for when you have to quote whose remarks were so stupid/irritating you can't bear to have them issue unadulterated from yr mouth

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Monday, 9 August 2004 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

francophones just do a version of the "throw your hands in the air" move--leftward if it's an acute accent, rightward if it's an accent aigu.

― |||| (amateurist), Monday, 9 August 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

It's only acceptable if you're referring to two-toed kittens who 'keep on hanging in there'. All other use should be punishable by tazer to nads.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 9 August 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"So you quote love unquote me" (The Magnetic Fields, 2004)
Saying "quote _ unquote" is more annoying than air quote signs, I think. However, in the above example, it's both annoying and endearing. (He also says the word "ampersand" in this song.) I'm more laughing than crying.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Thursday, 12 August 2004 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

aw that song came on two days ago and i was just thinking about this thread.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

aw :) (Though it's kind of shocking how often one is spurred to think about ilx threads in the course of daily life...)

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Thursday, 12 August 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I just heard a thing on the radio about "air highlighting", apparently the alternative to the oh-so-1997 air quote signs, y'know, b/c it references the Computer Age. I believe it's done by holding thumb and forefinger a few inches apart and then moving your arm and hand horizontally at, like, chest level. I'm sorry, but I will sucker punch the first person I see doing this.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 16 August 2004 17:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Is that the same as air punching?

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 16 August 2004 17:55 (twenty-one years ago)

haha - if punching the air out of someone, then yes. Air punching = audience at a rawk show or South African swimming team winning gold medal.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Monday, 16 August 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

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