OTHER ANNOYING SYMBOLS

Along with "AIR QUOTES", my brothers and I share dislike for the following symbols:

1. The "OKAY" symbol. It takes longer to make the symbol with thumb and forefinger than to say it aloud.

2. The "HIGH FIVE" gesture is out of date. I love it when I see someone put their hand up to do it and nobody responds.

3. The "FIST BUMP" is passe. My brother said, "By the time you see middle-aged white guys doing it, you know it's passe."

4. The "THUMBS UP" gesture should be reserved ONLY for Roger Ebert. The "WAGGING THUMBS UP" is especially annoying!

5. Fortunately, I have not seen the "HIP BUMP" recently; perhaps it died a gracious death!

6. The "WINK" is usually seen used by old men and little kids who have just learned to do it! Cute on kids, disgusting on old codgers!

7. The "PEACE SYMBOL" is too 1960s!

As I've written before, my brother hates the use of "air quotes". Someone told him that he'd used them since he was a teenager! My brother responded, "I'm surprised you have any fingers left or that somebody hasn't broken them off!" I doubt that the contemporary has used the annoying habit that long.

In my investigation, I learned that the first documented use of the term "air quotes" was in 1989; the length of time the annoying gesture has been around is unknown but the use of "air quotes" became widespread in the 1990s.

Steve Martin famously used "air quotes" in comedy routines and Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies used them.

Although my brother detests it, I find the habit merely annoying, but I do have questions:

1. What is the purpose of air quotes? I have gathered that users want to show emphasis but quotation marks in writing aren't used for emphasis; italics are. They should be using "AIR ITALICS"!

2. Don't the users think that listeners would comprehend their meaning from emphasis in their voices?

3. Don't the users think the recipients are intelligent enough to know that their comments might be sarcastic, disbelieving, ironic, euphemistic or any other emotion they want to impart?

4. Don't the users realize if they are actually quoting, they should say "Quote"?

5. Do they think they're cute?

6. Don't they want to be taken seriously?

A friend who also detests "air quotes" sent me a video clip of Monty Python And The Holy Grail where the character Tim The Enchanter is warning King arthur that "death awaits you with nasty pointy teeth." My friend wrote: "See--it's the first use of the dreaded air quotes."

Les said, "This MUST be your last tirade about air quotes." and then he started doing his impression of the famous Victor Borge routine about verbal punctuation marks!