When a character does a task such as throwing someone rowdy out of a club or defeating someone in battle, they tend to dust their hands — as in slap them past one another in an up and down manner.
This is the character's way of saying, "That takes care of that!" showing that the task was done thoroughly and easily.
Compare Hand Rubbing, in which the person rubbing their hands together is doing so in a sinister way, indicating that the person himself is sinister. Also compare Finger-Tenting, where the person covers their mouth with their hands or fingers when they are lying.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In Pokémon in the episode "Ditto's Mysterious Mansion," Team Rocket kidnaps Duplica's Ditto and Jesse orders it to transform into a boy in a picture. The first 2 times Ditto fails, James and Meowth laugh at the whole ordeal causing Jesse to beat them up and she dusts her hands off afterwards.
Films — Animation
- In The Curse Of The Wererabbit, the villain, Victor Quartermaine, has been going after Wallace because they're both interested in the same girl. Gromit dresses Victor in a female rabbit suit that he and Wallace used to lure the Were-Rabbit. Then he shoves him out the door, causing the mob after the Were-Rabbit to go after Victor. Dusting his paws with a Death Glare at the villain, he returns to the tent to take care of his master.
Films — Live-Action
- In Ruthless People Barbara affectionately dusts her hands after knocking her Jerkass treacherous husband off a pier for trying to have her murdered to receive her inheritance.
- In Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 A soon to be unfortunately murdered man dusts his hands after taking out the trash before Richard, armed with a stolen police revolver, shouts "Garbage day!" before shooting him dead.
- In You Ought to Be in Pictures, Porky Pig returns home to the Looney Tunes studios just in time to find Daffy Duck trying to convince Leon Schlesinger to hire him to replace Porky. Angered by the realization that his friend tricked him into quitting and trying - unsuccessfully - to find work in a live-action film purely to bolster his own career, Porky lures Daffy out of the room and subjects him to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, then walks back in to chat with Leon, dusting his hands confidently.
Live-Action TV
- For Big Bad Beetleborgs every Beetleborg has some superpower in their civilain identity that are activated by doing some general hand gestures, the White Blaster Beetleborg Josh can turn invisible by dusting off his hands.
- Anytime Jazz is thrown out of the Banks' home on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a character is seen dusting off their hands while walking back inside.
Literature
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: In "The Bad Beginning", Count Olaf dusts off his hands soon after lifting Sunny in the air and setting her back down again. The text specifically describes that he dusts off his hands as if he had been holding something disgusting.
Video Games
- In Fallout 3, Moira Brown is shown to dust her hands off a lot when the player enters her shop in Megaton.
- Have A Nice Death: At the end of every boss fight in the game, Death (as in, that Death) will play an animation where he victoriously dusts off his hands in satisfaction, after giving his unruly (and much stronger) employees a well-deserved ass-beating for the trouble they cause his company.
- Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam: If you can get Wendy to get mad at Roy in-battle and beat him up, she comes out of the Big Ball of Violence dusting her hands.
Web Animation
- In Helluva Boss, Blitzo dusts his hands off after his team manages to murder a bunch of humans to try and outdo the number of humans Verosika's team manages to seduce. Turns out the competition was just beginning when Verosika runs a pop concert!
Western Animation
- In WordGirl, Dr. Two Brains zaps Miss Power with a blaster and, thinking he took care of her, walks off dusting his hands. Turns out he didn't!
- The Simpsons: In the Treehouse of Horror episode "Scary Tales Come True", Homer drops off Bart and Lisa into the forest. He goes home and starts dusting his hands after.
- Chief Wiggums dusts his hands in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" upon believing that he's successfully rid the mall of its rat problem by letting a mountain lion loose in the building. Upon being asked if he's going to recapture the mountain lion, he merely repeats the gesture and leaves.
- The Little Rascals: In "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", Spanky dusts his hands after pulling Alfalfa through an opening in a wooden fence.
Real Life
- In American Sign Language, the sign for "finished" resembles this gesture.
