Wrote Lewis Carroll in "Sylvie and Bruno," describing the gesture made while singing the words "this was their wish" in this stanza of a song:
“The Badgers did not care to talk to Fish:I print the entire stanza because of the badgers, of course, this being Wisconsin. But why — you might ask, marking the air with a "?" — am I fooling around inside "Sylvie and Bruno" this evening? I have an answer!
They did not dote on Herrings' songs:
They never had experienced the dish
To which that name belongs:
And oh, to pinch their tails,' (this was their wish,)
'With tongs, yea, tongs, and tongs!'”
I was reading the Wikipedia article "Air quotes," which naturally traces the origin of air quotes. It gives Lewis Carroll credit for arriving at the basic idea — albeit only with parentheses and question marks — all the way back in 1889.
The oldest definite use of air quotes seems to be Glenda Farrell the 1937 screwball comedy, "Breakfast for Two":
Isn't that wonderful! But air quotes got too popular in the 1990s and became subject to derision, notably by Steve Martin, Chris Farley, and Dr. Evil. And here's George Carlin in 1996:
People got the message and restrained themselves, but air quotes were still around enough to make their appearance in the fall of 2002, in the thing I just watched that got me started on this little research project, Episode 3 of Season 9 of "Friends" — where Joey (ostensibly the dumbest person in the group) does not understand how air quotes work:
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18 comments:
Okay, that was hilarious.
You mean Charles Dodgson, the noted mathematician.
Zest for life has infected LaAlthouse. This is a very good day.
LMAO at that Friends clip.
it was interesting the '30's gal used air quotes for opening AND closing the quote
never seen that before
I remember the "air quotes" in the excellent film Say Anything.
George Carlin, yeah. Still find that drugged-out millionaire, (and fake Hippy), completely boring. Hate his old guy pony tail too. The 30s movie clip was charming. The Friends clip was better than usual.
High Fidelity:
"I'm trying to find a new way of saying that we're not the same people, that we've grown apart, blah blah blah, but the effort is beyond me.
"'We're not the same people we used to be. We've grown apart,'"
"Why are you putting on that silly voice?"
"It's supposed to be inverted commas. I was trying to find a new way of saying it."
Up speak generally makes a sign unnecessary, as does simply asking a properly worded question that doesn’t need a sign or up speak.
It's a color supremacist symbol, diversity adversity, a double heil stopped short.
I've said it before... Joey was the dope, but Matt LeBlanc was the sharpest of them all and clearly the best actor for playing dopey so convincingly, look at the outtakes to see what I mean.
And now a word from Bennett Braurer...
Well maybe I'm not "the norm".
I'm not "camera friendly."
I don't "wear clothes that fit me."
I'm not a "heartbreaker."
I haven't "had sex with a woman." I don't know "how that works."
I'm not "hygienic." I don't "wipe properly."
I don't "own a toothbrush" or "let my scabs heal."
I can't "reach all the parts of my body."
I "eat my own dandruff."
I "pop my whiteheads" with "a compass I used in high school."
My personal favorite air quote anecdote involved my dry cleaner mocking me. I frequently drop off hubs’ clothes and ask for them back the next day because I’m not sure when he actually needs them. Usually he doesn’t need any particular item back that quickly, so I pick up the clothes several days or even a week or so after dropping them off.
After this pattern developed and was recognized by my dry cleaner, one day she takes the bag of dirty clothes from me and says, “Ah so you want back “Tomollow” while making air quotes and displaying a small smile.
Cracked me up! And of course now the air quoted “tomollow” is the universal code for dry cleaning runs at our house.
Joey Air Quotes would be a good name for an erudite mobster.
Victor Borge tried introducing "phonetic punctuation," which incorporated plenty of gestural punctuation (with predictable Borgeian results).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJiHlt8NRqk
I've never seen a full episode of 'Friends' but know enough about the characters...Matt LeBlanc isn't Olivier but he's a very good actor...much smarter than the Joey character...funny scene.
@Rory
I saw Joey Air Quotes open for Deep Purple at the Cow Palace in '77.
I think people should make air quotes every time they use the word "liberal" in is current bastardized sense.
"I remember when 'liberal' meant being generous with your own money."--Will Rogers
Big Mike: You mean Charles Dodgson, the noted mathematician.
No, she doesn't. She means Lewis Carroll, the author of Sylvie and Bruno. That Charles Lutwidge Dodgson took "Charles Lutwidge," switched them, translated them back to the original Latin "Ludovicus Carolus," then re-Anglicized them as "Lewis Carroll" to write his famous literary nonsense:
1. is the most Lewis Carroll thing ever.
2. doesn't change the authorship of "Sylvie and Bruno."
Here endeth the sermon on deacon of the Anglican church, polymath, and authors, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Lewis Carroll.
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