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The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.

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Scorpion451 (Edited uphill both ways)
2018-08-13 13:34:58

That's totally Truth in Television. Most people do it without even realizing it when they're really upset, sort of like Biting the Handkerchief. Overlaps quite a bit with Fist of Rage and A Glass in the Hand, especially in cases where they're Trying Not to Cry.

Pisthetairos Since: Apr, 2018
2018-08-14 17:30:39

I always assumed that was supposed to mimic a baby crying and clumsily learning to use his hands. I remember Doctor Cox from Scrubs doing it whenever he fakes crying to mock people.

BradyLady Since: May, 2012
2018-08-14 18:27:02

In the video "How Do You Like Me Now," Toby Keith uses the gesture to mock the high school Alpha Bitch who spurned him. It's passing the fists in front of the eyes, back and forth in a windshield-wiper kind of motion. While I've never seen anybody actually do that when crying, it is often used to suggest or pantomime it. I don't know if there is a trope for it. I think it's just a stock gesture.

Unsung Since: Jun, 2016
2018-08-14 21:42:57

Babies and toddlers totally do cry like that, like Pisthetairos said, and some kids take longer to grow out of it than others. The joke/insult here is calling someone a whiny baby, or else showing themselves to be one. No Sympathy is usually involved.

I don't know if we have a specific trope for it. Maybe we should.

Edited by Unsung
BradyLady Since: May, 2012
2018-08-15 13:47:39

I agree that 1.) it should be a trope, and 2.) babies and toddlers do pass their fists over their eyes. However, they don't use the specific back and forth windshield-wiper motion, which would I think be the trope.

Unsung Since: Jun, 2016
2018-08-15 18:26:47

I think that's the most common expression of the gesture, but hardly the only one. There's a very precise, exaggerated version of this which has become completely absorbed into the common culture, but it's just convention, something people have developed over time, like giving someone the middle finger or the OK sign. But yeah, if we don't have it, we should get together a TLP.

Edited by Unsung
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