Really Stupid Words, Chapter 23.

And now forsomething completely different.

Thisedition of Stupid Words does not involve words at all. It does involvelanguage, but not spoken language. It involves waggling two fingers on eachhand in what is known as air quotes.

I guesssomebody, somewhere, sometime, decided that waggling fingers like thatresembles printed quotation marks. It’s a reach.

It’s amystery to me why and how it caught on, as the gesture serves no real purpose.

Still, somepeople feel obligated to waggle, thinking that waggling with their fingers addsemphasis to what they are saying with their mouth. It doesn’t. It’s more adistraction, really. For many, an annoyance.

Besides, thehuman voice is perfectly suited to add emphasis, no fingers required. There’svolume, there’s inflection, there’s pacing, stretching, stress, intonation,cadence, pitch, timbre, tone, even silent pauses. I’m sure there are other waysto emphasize what you’re saying, but waggling your fingers to make air quotesneed not (and, to my way of thinking, should not) be among them.

If everyou are tempted to waggle your fingers when speaking, remember how the lateChris Farley showed how stupid air quotes are with his character BennettBrauer. You can look it up.