I have noticed recently that there is a common problem pervading the lives of many expressive Americans. Because of this, I am writing a personal call to action in order to inspire those who are in a position of authority to start a revolution.
You know the gesture. It happens when someone wants to insinuate something and he or she lift his or her hands leaving the index and middle finger in the upright position to make a sort of peace-sign-like-thing. Generally this gesture occurs somewhere in the region above the shoulders (but not above the crown of the head) and is punctuated by a bending and extending of the bunny ears fingers. This famous gesture, my friends, is called "air quoting" (Did you imagine me doing air quotes around the words air quoting? I hope so, because that would be awesome).
What I have noticed is that people are overusing the air quotes these days. My friends and I were musing about the overabundance of this specific gesture-based punctuation mark the other night and were trying to figure out reasons why this particular offense is so rampant. So, here are some reasons that we came up with (why not make a list?):
1. People simply do not understand why air quotes should be used. They think that it looks cool or makes them appear more intelligent to do this particular move, so they think, what the heck! Ima do it!
2. Some people are too nice and do not want to offend others. They air quote the words that would be slightly offensive, thereby lessening the emotional impact of what they are saying. There's a problem with this tactic, it just makes them look silly. That's all.
3. Some people think air quoting adds credibility to what they are saying. These people imagine their air quoted word or phrase is followed by a parenthesis, author's last name, and page number, as if what they had just said was magically published to a book of famous air quotes of the world. Although I totally appreciate any form of in-text citations and giving credit to the original source, this is not the original intention of the air quotes. They are to insinuate something, not to be a literal meaning.
4. Although this last one is a very small group of air quoters, some people out there think it is a dance move. I know. What planet do they live on? I'm not even going to try to justify this one, I'm only going to encourage them to add a little hip action and toe tapping to take their dance moves to the next level. If they put in a little more gusto, they might even start a dance revolution.
Have you noticed people misusing the air quotes, or any other gesture punctuation for that matter? Comment below!
I know someone who used to do air quotes almost like he was doing the "talk, talk, talk" hand gesture.He would just use his middle finger and index finger, but wouldn't bend at the knuckle. I do think it was some sort of attempt at a dance move because I don't remember what he was talking about when he used them.
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