A Quick Analysis Of Cinematic Bird-Flipping

The universal language.

I was told by a friend it was rooted in some war where the king told his men to cut off the fingers of archers so they couldn't shoot anymore, and at the end, to show their mockery and lack of respect for the kind, they showed their middle finger.

Okay, I could totally be off, but I was told a long time ago so forgive my hazy memory, but it was something to that effect.

@Godlyawesomeguy said:

I was told by a friend it was rooted in some war where the king told his men to cut off the fingers of archers so they couldn't shoot anymore, and at the end, to show their mockery and lack of respect for the kind, they showed their middle finger.

Okay, I could totally be off, but I was told a long time ago so forgive my hazy memory, but it was something to that effect.

As far as I know it stems from ancient Greek comedies where showing someone the finger was a terrible insult.

I really enjoy flipping the bird and seeing someone flip me the bird. Not enough people do it anymore. Cut a guy off? He will just speed past you and give you a dirty look. I miss the bird.

No Cannonball Run 2 renders this video completely invalid...

Aww, wheres that scene from Constantine where he flips off the devil?

Its missing some pretty iconic birdflippin', as already noted. This video is not complete without the Korbin Dallas double bird.

Giving the V's???

If this is some bizarre American version of giving/throwing up the forks then I'll have no part of it.

@Godlyawesomeguy said:

I was told by a friend it was rooted in some war where the king told his men to cut off the fingers of archers so they couldn't shoot anymore, and at the end, to show their mockery and lack of respect for the kind, they showed their middle finger.

Okay, I could totally be off, but I was told a long time ago so forgive my hazy memory, but it was something to that effect.

Your making reference to the forks. Back when the the English and the French spend a lot of their time trying to murder each other in the middle ages the English had the advantage of the Long Bow over the French military. As a result one thing the French would do when capturing English bow men was amputate their middle and index finger to prevent them from being able to use the long bow against should they escape capture.

So the English soldiers took to throwing up the forks at the French from the battlements as a taunt.

Is it just me, or are most of those movies in that supercut pretty great?

The lack of Short Circuit is disturbing.

@Korwin said:

@Godlyawesomeguy said:

I was told by a friend it was rooted in some war where the king told his men to cut off the fingers of archers so they couldn't shoot anymore, and at the end, to show their mockery and lack of respect for the kind, they showed their middle finger.

Okay, I could totally be off, but I was told a long time ago so forgive my hazy memory, but it was something to that effect.

Your making reference to the forks. Back when the the English and the French spend a lot of their time trying to murder each other in the middle ages the English had the advantage of the Long Bow over the French military. As a result one thing the French would do when capturing English bow men was amputate their middle and index finger to prevent them from being able to use the long bow against should they escape capture.

So the English soldiers took to throwing up the forks at the French from the battlements as a taunt.

From the QI forums:

There really is no evidence at all for this idea, and no reference to it before the 1970s, as this brief article points out -
http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-v-sign/biography/the-anti-french-gesture . It's propagated today in large part by the re-enactment/living history community for obvious romantic reasons, and for jingoistic reasons by the public at large, but I have also seen a form of it in an American email forward involving the supposed (made up!) insult "pluck yew" (seehttp://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.htm). It's a clear attempt to ascribe great antiquity to a culturally distinctive offensive gesture (that may not even be that old itself). As the Icons article says, it's not even very plausible; in fact there are good reasons why it is quite unlikely. Hostage taking was an important aspect of medieval war, but not in the way that servicepeople are captured today. They were taken because they were militarily, politically, and/or economically useful; a crippled archer (or even a healthy one!) is none of those, and whilst his commanders might prefer that he not be killed, they would not exactly move heaven and earth (or pay out) to get him returned in such a useless state. Bottom line; a captured archer is a dead archer. Also bear in mind that today, longbows are drawn with three fingers, not two, and the medieval longbows had very heavy draw weights.

For as definitive an answer as is possible to get (you cannot after all prove a negative), I would try to get in touch with Professor Anne Curry at the University of Southampton; she has, I understand, reviewed the French source (Froissart) that the reference is alleged to have come from, and as yet has found no evidence whatever that this salute existed. It certainly wasn’t recorded as being used at Agincourt itself. Her details are here;http://www.history.soton.ac.uk/curry.htm - I’m not sure whether her latest book covers this myth specifically or not. I need to find a copy myself.

Thought the title said "Cinematic Bird-Flapping" and expected a montage of John Woo doves.

@Korwin said:

Giving the V's???

If this is some bizarre American version of giving/throwing up the forks then I'll have no part of it.

It's a British thing. Instead of one finger, you use your index and your middle finger. It's like a reverse peace sign. At least, that's what I assume he was referring to.

Some dude at work gave me the finger yesterday because I didn't say bye. But he did it in that sad way where you pretend to scratch your nose. What a dick.

How could they get Vasquez' but miss Apone's in "Aliens"?

Look into my eye.

In my country it just means "stick your finger up your ass".

@hrn212 said:

@Korwin said:

Giving the V's???

If this is some bizarre American version of giving/throwing up the forks then I'll have no part of it.

It's a British thing. Instead of one finger, you use your index and your middle finger. It's like a reverse peace sign. At least, that's what I assume he was referring to.

I know that, but nobody refer's to it as "Giving the V's".

@SlimJimm said:

Aww, wheres that scene from Constantine where he flips off the devil?

Seriously! That is the first scene I think of when it comes to flipping off people in movies.

@Korwin said:

@hrn212 said:

@Korwin said:

Giving the V's???

If this is some bizarre American version of giving/throwing up the forks then I'll have no part of it.

It's a British thing. Instead of one finger, you use your index and your middle finger. It's like a reverse peace sign. At least, that's what I assume he was referring to.

I know that, but nobody refer's to it as "Giving the V's".

Ah, I took your comment literally instead of sarcastically. lol. Yeah I've never heard of it called that either.