Hand Rubbing is the act of rubbing the palms of your hands together. The friction of the gesture can be used to provide heat in a cold environment, or it can simply convey excitation or expectation.
The Other Wiki has a
whole article
on the subject, but here, we will focus on rubbing hands as a trope.
There is an eerie specificity in fiction to reserve this gesture for
Smug Snake type villains.
Used car salesmen, lower-end
corrupt corporate executives and the
Dastardly Whiplash will gleefully rub their hands when things are going their way, but a true
Magnificent Bastard always opts to
clasp his hands instead. Even when otherwise positive characters do this, there's nearly always a sinister undercurrent.
Examples:
Comics
Literature
Magazines
Video Games
- Dr. Fred, the Mad Scientist from Day Of The Tentacle, has a sprite whose static animation consists of this.
- Although in Fred's case, there's nothing particularly sinister about it-he's just jittery from the permanent caffeine high he submits himself to so as to avoid sleepwalking (by avoiding sleeping).
- As depicted in the trope image, this is Frank Sahwit's default sprite in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney.
Webcomics
- Girl Genius - "...and suddenly the captain is rubbing his hands together and affirming that "We're not pirates. He didn't count."
Western Animation
- Mr. Burns does this on occasion in The Simpsons. Word Of God is that this is supposed to be like a praying mantis.
- 1973/74 Super Friends
- Episode "The Androids". Dr. Rebos does this after he captures Superman using artificial kryptonite.
- Episode "The Balloon People". Dr. Noah Tall does it when he thinks he's about to capture the title characters.
