“Xeepzorp, it’s not that complicated. The thumb-up is like crossing your eyestalks, and the middle-finger is like extruding your rectal tentacle.”
Ah yes the ass dick
Wait until they learn that the thumbs-up in some countries means what the middle finger does in the US…
I’m still trying to wrap my head around the Czech Republic, where apparently holding up a single index finger means 2.
Not a Czech but now that you mentioned it I want this here too!
I mean have you tried counting from either end using all your fingers i.e. thumb == 1? That dexterous shit is hard so making a single index finger two instantly makes it nice and smooth!
(Instant edit: this obviously only holds if index finger+ middle finger counts as 3, otherwise there really only seems to be an advantage in calling out 2 and my argument collapses)
How do you count 1 then?
I do have some experience with the Czech Republic and I’m pretty sure this isn’t the case.
I was only there a month. I can’t claim to be any kind of expert. But I do know I wound up eating two sausages.
Sausages are often sold as a pair there, just like socks - you won’t get just one :) Even the czech word párek (sausage) means also “a pair”.
Fascinating. Didn’t know that!
It’s not that complicated, aliens
The middle finger gesture was used in ancient times as a symbol of sexual intercourse, in a manner meant to degrade, intimidate and threaten the individual receiving the gesture. It also represented the phallus, with the fingers next to the middle finger representing testicles
It’s a classic human cock-and-balls, simple as
Ah yes signs and symbols. Surely no alien ever has heard of those.
This made me realize that if we encounter aliens there is a non-zero chance there will be alien weebs that become obsessed with our culture and think it is superior.
That’s how we beat the Zentradi.
Seems like any aliens advanced enough to study us would very easily figure out that hand gestures are a form of communication.
Shit’s regional, too, yo. For “fuck you”, the brits use a gesture that’s more akin to “eat my cunt”.
We do? Can you describe the gesture? Maybe it’s so ingrained I don’t even recognise it. Or I need to learn it. Then I can use it at everyone today.
The human race is often thought of as communicating primarily on a vocal basis. however, they also possess an extremely complex and sophisticated language based on gestures. For example, the simple gesture of raising the index and middle finger with the palm inwards can convey the complete sentence: “up yours Frenchie, I still have all my fingers”
Let’s see how harmless it is when I jam it in your compound eye Mr. Kleezorp
My dog pisses on other dog’s piss as a show of dominance. We’re all weird.
At least that makes sense and has a logical reason
Well, the middle finger use to represent the ability to draw a bow. Unless I’m making shit up.
According to Wikipedia, it originated in ancient Greece and has always meant the same thing as it does now.
That’s middle and index fingers, with the palm facing backwards. Just a backwards peace sign.
That’s what I heard, but the fellah who told us both might have been making it up
In the UK two fingers up is a rude gesture and it comes from battles with the french. If they caught a British archer they removed those fingers so they couldn’t fire a bow. So sticking them up at the enemy and gesturing was showing they had them and would use them to fire arrows at them. I am not an historian, though, and this could just be one of those tales that sounds so true everyone believes it and passes it on.
Ya know I don’t actually think having widely recognised hand signals with different meanings is all that weird.
Body language is ubiquitous as communication in animal species, it’s like saying “why one noise good but another noise bad”
If aliens exist (and they probably do,) they’d probably take one look at our incessant sat tv broadcasts and nope the fuck out.
Also, probably just stay away because they’d know we nuked ourselves. Multiple times. We’re psychopaths.
And some humans don’t mind the middle finger at all and even react to it with bemusement!
But some humans think the ok gesture is as bad as or worse than the middle finger.
Others are offended by the index and middle finger being extended in a V shape with the palm facing inward…but never when it’s facing outward!
Maybe it evolved to be harmless. Maybe it used to be the poison finger and now we instinctively try to poison each other.
“You see, in france, the archers were getting their middle fingers cut off … and that’s why it’s offensive.”
“Is all that true?”
“Yes, the history is well documented. Billy from home room told Jessie in gym class…”
