18
PSA: That "vibe check" meme with the hand gesture is NOT what you think
I kept seeing people use the hand-over-face thing as a greeting or a joke about energy. But my cousin works at a sign language school in Austin, and she told me it's actually a modified sign for "bored" or "whatever" in some dialects. I felt pretty dumb air-handsing it at a party last week. Has anyone else accidentally used a real sign thinking it was just a meme?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
the_matthew23h ago
The sign language school in Austin actually teaches a specific variation called Pidgin Signed English, which blends ASL with manual English. I looked into it after seeing this thread and found out the "vibe check" gesture is close to the sign for "sarcastic" in some PSE dialects, not just bored or whatever. The hand position and movement direction matter a lot too, like if the palm faces inward it changes the meaning entirely to "denial" in at least two regional dialects I checked. So it might not be a direct translation but the resemblance is closer than people think.
6
caleb_ross1227d ago
Gotta say, I think this is a bit of a stretch. I've seen that hand gesture used in totally different contexts online and in person, and nobody has ever called it out as a sign for something specific. Your mileage may vary, but it feels like one of those internet rabbit holes where someone connects dots that aren't really there. Plenty of hand movements and body language get repurposed by the internet without any real meaning behind them. I'd take the whole "actually it's sign language" thing with a huge grain of salt unless there's solid proof from a national organization or something.
0