History Main / AccidentalUnfortunateGesture

** Apparently for trolls, saying hello involves a firm smack on the head, while a friendly handshake is actually an severe insult to their mother.

* Depending on how one fingers certain guitar chords, it can look like that person is FlippingTheBird to anyone in front of him/her.

* In ''Series/TheGoodies'' episode "War Babies", Tim (who is impersonating UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill), gives the "two fingered salute" gesture when he was actually indicating that he wanted a cigar. Graeme then has the idea of turning his hand around to create the iconic "V for Victory" symbol.

* Example from ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E08HomeEconomics Home Economics]]", Annie does a hand shaking gesture that is highly suggestive.

** One episode has a mechanical Santa Claus who opens his arms wide to give children hugs. Problem: the arms are stitched to the coat (and apparently can't be cut away without irrevocable damage). So when Santa opens his arms... Making it worse is that the robot also says, "Ho, ho, ho, little boy! [[AccidentalInnuendo Have I got a surprise for you!]]" (Fortunately, the robot is a mannequin under the coat. It still makes Mr. Humphries faint.)

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush"]], [[NoDialogueEpisode everyone has lost their voices]], so have to communicate with sign language. Buffy [[ThisIndexTouchesItself pumps her hand up-and-down]] to indicate how she might kill the usual MonsterOfTheWeek (killing a vampire by stabbing it in the heart with a sharp bit of wood), but everyone just stares at [[ThisIndexTouchesItself what seems like an obscene suggestion]], so she has to grab a wooden stake and do it again.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' holiday special, Po discovers that many of his duties as the Dragon Warrior involving setting up the annual holiday ceremony are themselves very nearly ceremonies in their own right. When he's sampling foods to choose who will do the catering, Monkey passes by and waves hello; when Po returns the wave, everyone ''flips out'' and the chef he's talking to just about swears eternal revenge. It turns out that waving in that exact manner, with that hand, is the ceremonial signal for utter rejection; that the Dragon Warrior has found the food ''so abominable'' that the chef's entire village is essentially kicked out of China in disgrace.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush"]], [[NoDialogueEpisode everyone has lost their voices]], so have to communicate with sign language. Buffy pumps her hand up-and-down to indicate how she might kill the MonsterOfTheWeek, but everyone just stares at what seems like an obscene suggestion so she has to grab a wooden stake and do it again.

->'''Janeway''': I may never put my hands on my hips again.\\
'''Neelix''': You had no way of knowing you were making one of the worst insults possible.

* ''Series/{{Lucifer}}''. In "Trip to Stabby Town", Lucifer and Ella are analyzing the crime scene of a knife massacre. Ella begins to re-enact what most likely happened with Lucifer's help...and they both unintentionally end up in some ''very'' suggestive positions. Lucifer just smirks while Chloe's reaction throughout is a sight to behold.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "M-Corp", Lister's brain is hacked so he can only see items manufactured by M-Corp. Kryten tests the limits of this blindness by holding up various objects and asking Lister if he can see it. Whenever an object is invisible to Lister, it is also invisible to the audience. The last (invisible) object he holds up causes his hand to vibrate in an alarmingly suggestive fashion. He then passes to Cat and Rimmer, whose hands also vibrate in a suggestive fashion, causing Lister to remark "I really hope that's an electric toothbrush!".

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
** In "Macrocosm", when negotiating with a culture where body language is as important as words, Janeway almost caused a diplomatic incident by [[DynamicAkimbo putting her hands on her hips]], a {{Character Tic|s}} for her but one of the worst insults imaginable to them. Fortunately Neelix was there to pour oil on the waves.
** In "Innocence", Chakotay relates how on his first diplomatic mission he eagerly studied the aliens culture and made their gesture for "hello", only to accidentally proposition their ambassador, because the symbol had a different meaning according to one's gender.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush"]], [[NoDialogueEpisode everyone has lost their voices]], so have to communicate with sign language. Buffy pumps her hand up-and-down to indicate how she might kill the MonsterOfTheWeek, but everyone just stares at what seems like an [[ADateWithRosiePalms obscene suggestion]] so she has to grab a wooden stake and do it again.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Five More Short Graybles", Tree Trunks tries to report to the Banana Guards that someone in town was making a rude gesture at her. When she returns to the scene, that person turns out to be an unoffensive statue -- Shelby the Worm was just sitting upright in the middle of its fist.

* A ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' story has a man whose hand is trapped in the middle finger extended position. This being [[CrapsackWorld Mega-City One]], his attempts to hide this only make things worse. HilarityEnsues.

* In the opening scene of ''Film/LifeIsBeautiful'', the brakes on Guido's car fail, and he waves to the people in front of him in order to tell them to get out of the way. However, his car had entered a procession of fascist officials, and his waving resembled the fascist salute, causing the crowd to [[CoincidentalAccidentalDisguise mistake him for Il Duce]]. HilarityEnsues when Mussolini himself shows up right after, to the crowd's puzzlement.

* In ''Film/RatRace'', Jon Lovitz' character burns his middle finger at one point. He airs it out. HilarityEnsues, naturally. [[DisasterDominoes Long story short]] it ends with him driving Hitler's car into a group of WWII vets while he has a Hitler mustache (lipstick smear), a burnt tongue so he sounds like he's speaking {{Angrish}} German, and he is showing all of them the burned middle finger.
* In ''Film/ScaryMovie3'', the white rapper puts on the hood in his sweater in front of a black audience, and it ends up looking like a Klan hood. He salutes the crowd, in what looks like a Nazi salute. HilarityEnsues.

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', the crew land on Earth and hide out in an abandoned house in the USA. They find a photo of someone making the Middle Finger gesture, and believe it to be a greeting. HilarityEnsues as they go out and meet the neighbours.