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Some fist bumping history for all you secret fist bumpers out there
“It’s as American as apple pie,” says Scott Williams, a Christian pastor, social-media strategist and self-appointed world ambassador for the fist bump. “It’s an attaboy. When you give someone a fist bump, you’re telling them, Let’s go do this.” The fist bump may have arisen spontaneously on city basketball courts, where kids developed slaps and shakes to celebrate wins. It can also be traced to the boxing ring, where opponents kiss gloves before a match. In the 1970s, the basketball star Fred Carter stamped it with his own exuberant personality, and some credit him as its inventor. However, fist-bump-ologists point out (as does Carter) that the gesture probably predates him.Williams said that he realized the power of the bump 10 years ago, while working as a prison warden. “I wanted to interact with the inmates, to pay respect to them, and I could do that by giving them the fist bump.” Since then, Williams has encouraged people in countries from Tanzania to Ecuador to adopt the salute. At SeaWorld San Diego, he proffered his fist to a walrus named Obie for an interspecies bump. (The walrus used its snout.) Williams believes that Barack Obama deserves credit for reinventing the fist bump. In 2008, when Obama locked knuckles with Michelle after his nomination, the cable stations erupted, and a Fox newscaster denounced the “terrorist fist jab.” Yet the bump emerged from the brouhaha looking presidential. “Obama’s fist bump caught the attention of the world,” Williams says. “And so, because of that platform, it’s not just people who are watching sports that are seeing it. It’s the leaders.” For the stiffest of shirts, the Obama moment helped the fist bump cross over “into the professional realm and become business casual,” Williams adds, and now “it’s the Swiss Army knife of gestures.” The editors of the Merriam-Webster dictionary appear to agree. Noticing a surge in the use of the phrase “fist bump” in recent years, they anointed it as official English in 2011. “Fist bump” took its place in the dictionary, along with “tweet,” “helicopter parent” and “bromance.” _ |
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Here's the real reason.
It's what you do if one is quick, when someone undesirable starts to extend their hand towards you. You form a fist pretty sharpish, so you only have to make contact with their knuckles, instead of putting your hand in theirs. Whose fingers do doubt have been used to pick their nose, scratch their arse, and probably have dried pee on them from their last visit to the bog. |
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^Phew that was close.
I'd have probably caught Bubonic plague shaking hands with that. |
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I may be wrong but think they started doing this in casinos in Vegas rather than high five, to stop the possible exchange of chips
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You see it a lot in the Ryder Cup. Never understand why you want to bang knuckles together when you're a golfer. At least batsman have gloves on...
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Was watching a mixed doubles at Wimbledon this year on one of the outside courts,the players were doing it after every single point ,it was so irritating I had to leave the court.
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I thought it meant something else!!!!
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The West Indian mates that I have near me say it is a hygiene thing, fist pump as opposed to shaking hands when you meet someone you meet. It makes perfect sense that, I would never shake hands with someone who had dirty fingernails for example.
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Tried to fist bump a Spurs fan once but sadly I missed and accidentally hit him on the nose
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a good way to thank the mrs after a hand job
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^ And people say romance is dead.
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do you rush off out and buy yours flowers then mustang.
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a good way to thank the mrs after a hand job
If you want a job one properly best do it yourself ![]() |
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Fist hump ?
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