Never seen this hand sign? You might be shocked
November 9, 2005
BY RICHARD ROEPER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Scenes from the American landscape:
*College football. The Georgia Bulldogs are squaring off against the Florida Gators, and a Georgia television goes to a live shot of some typically maniacal fans of the Dawgs.
A giant foam hand enters screen right. The index, middle and pinky fingers extended, with the ring finger bent and meeting the thumb in the palm of the big hand.
*Pro wrestler Matt Hardy enters the ring, and flashes a signal to the rabid crowd: index, middle and pinky fingers extended, with his ring fingers bent and meeting the palms of his hands.
*Prior to the 2005 Super Bowl, Fox goes to Iraq for a salute to our troops. As the 209 Broadcast Operation Detachment from Rome, Ga., says "Hi Mom!" in unison, three soldiers pull out giant foam hands with the three fingers up/ one finger down arrangement.
*The cast of an off-Broadway musical poses for an onstage photo. Virtually everyone in the picture is doing the same hand gesture: hand extended in front of the chest, ring finger bent down.
*Drummer/curiosity Tommy Lee poses for a photo with a couple of fans. He's doing the same hand gesture.
Shock to the system
On and on it goes. From college football games to celebrity photo ops to candid photos in high school yearbooks, a certain type of hand gesture seems to be sweeping the nation -- especially among teens and twentysomethings.
Call it the Shocker.
That's one of the few names for this gesture that could make it into a mainstream publication.
Everyone knows what "the finger" means, and everyone knows that you're not going to carry images of someone giving the finger in a newspaper or on TV.
But what about gang signs? You see a basketball player or a hip-hop artist flashing hand gestures on TV, and you're not sure what it's all about. Usually the commentators just ignore it.
Then you've got the safe-for-all-audiences hand gestures, like the "Hook 'em horns" for the University of Texas, or the surfer's greeting, i.e., pinky up, thumb extended, remaining fingers folded.
If you don't know what the Shocker means, it seems innocuous. So some college sophomore is hiding his ring finger and waving his hand while sporting a little bit of an evil grin, so what?
Well. Let's start by saying that the following portion of the column is rated PG-13, and may not be suitable for children or hyper-sensitive adults.
The shocker represents a certain type of sexual manipulation of a woman. You can do the math.
From Wikipedia: "The shocker is a hand gesture with a sexual connotation that has become popularized in many high schools and colleges throughout the United States . . ."
Here's Rebecca Mead in the New Yorker, on the founders of the CollegeHumor.com Web site:
"Another familiar type of contemporary college humor is a hand gesture known as the shocker, in which the ring finger of the hand is held down by the thumb while the remaining three fingers stay rigid. 'No one over the age of 25 knows what it means, but I guarantee you that 90 percent of college students know what it is,' Josh said. (The gesture indicates a method of pleasuring a female partner, though not one that looks to be easily undertaken without incurring hand cramps.) Ricky had the idea of manufacturing a large foam hand, the Big Shocker, like those on sale at sports events. So far, close to twenty thousand have been sold through CollegeHumor.com, for a profit of about ten dollars apiece."
Ah, the kids today with their enterprising, go-get 'em spirit!
As the New Yorker article mentioned, the Shocker is big on CollegeHumor.com. The site has all kinds of photos -- including some with nudity, so you've been warned -- of people flashing the Shocker. They've even got a shot of the actress who played Winnie Cooper on "The Wonder Years," posing with some beefy goofball as they both flash the Shocker.
Winnie!
The "Urban Dictionary" Web site has an astonishingly comprehensive list of euphemisms for the Shocker. The basic theme is, "Two in the [BLEEP]! and one in the [RHYMES WITH THE FIRST BLEEP!]"
What next for the Shocker?
Somewhere, somebody had to sit down and come up with all these phrases. Yet we're still looking for an English-language word that rhymes with "orange."
All over the Web, there are photos of people who were born after 1980, doing the Shocker. In addition to the big foam hands, you can buy Shocker hats, Shocker posters, Shocker T-shirts.
But with the Shocker is creeping into the mainstream media world, now what? What's ESPN going to do the next time some face-painting fan waves a big foam Shocker for the cameras -- pretend that it symbolizes something fresh and innocent? Or what if athletes start doing it? If the NBA's cracking down with a dress code, will they crack down on the Shocker?
The shock and "ew" campaign is just beginning.
E-mail:
rroeper@suntimes.com
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