Why do people clap?

py2006

...well I know its a sign of appreciation.

But, do you ever think about why exactly do we slap two parts of our body together to make a noise? Why is that a sign of appreciation? Who was the first person to propose we do that when we like something?

(grabs coat, goes to pub)

Grimebox

People are actually giving themselves a high-five

mikemac1

If it's good enough for the seals it's good enough for me

kfallon

You trying this in every forum?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056673320

FatherLen

i learned from the fresh prince that if you need to clap with one hand, just slap the back of your neck. it's handy if you have a pint in your other hand.

py2006

kfallon wrote: »

You trying this in every forum?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056673320

No I posted it there by accident yesterday! I thought I was here!

flutterflye

These things always bug me too.
It's really stupid to me.
I mean I know there has to be some universal way of showing appreciation or whatever it is you want to express at the time, but it just seems very sheeple like or something.
The same as putting your hands up at a concert and things like that.
Or when I was younger and went to mass, I used to find it funny that everyone would stand, kneel, sit etc... at the same times, just because 'that's what you do'!

scamalert

so what do you propose then ? scream,shout after someone plays a piano thumbs up or light a lighter
BTW i always clap when plane lands,its appreciation that pilots got you safely to the spot,and i do believe when they hear that they do feel good about the,mselves at the same time ,also its same like some people say thanks to the bus driver when they arrive at the destination,So clapping is like a group saying thanks to the person/s for something they we done.

Duggys Housemate

There are only so many options to show appreciation. We can clap, hit hands on table, shout, get our tits out, gnash our teeth, throw our hats in the air if we had a hat, jump up and down like lunatics, and so on.

I am happy with the preferred solution.

py2006

scamalert wrote: »

so what do you propose then ? scream,shout after someone plays a piano thumbs up or light a lighter
BTW i always clap when plane lands,its appreciation that pilots got you safely to the spot,and i do believe when they hear that they do feel good about the,mselves at the same time ,also dont start comparing why i dont clap when a bus driver gets me to the bus stop

haha, do you clap yourself when you drive yourself home?

mikemac1

scamalert wrote: »

BTW i always clap when plane lands,its appreciation that pilots got you safely to the spot,and i do believe when they hear that they do feel good about the,mselves at the same time

You realize they probably can't hear you behind their bolted metal door and their headsets?

py2006

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

There are only so many options to show appreciation. We can clap, hit hands on table, shout, get our tits out, gnash our teeth, throw our hats in the air if we had a hat, jump up and down like lunatics, and so on.

I am happy with the preferred solution.

I'm not suggesting we don't do it. Its more how did it come to be. When you think of what we are actually doing, it is quite odd.

leggo

Well it wouldn't be very productive if we ran head-first into a wall whenever something impressed us now, would it OP?

mathepac

leggo wrote: »

Well it wouldn't be very productive if we ran head-first into a wall whenever something impressed us now, would it OP?

Yes if the wall-butters are Westshyte / Justin Bebo fans.

bnt

I don't mind people clapping to music, as long as they clap on the 3, not on the 1, in a 4/4 song. It's 1 2 3 4 , 1 2 3 4 ... :cool: If that's too complicated, just listen for the snare drum - that's where you clap, people.

Stinicker

I think they clap to avoid getting the clap.

Dravokivich

Depending on the tempo, it means approval (high) / disapproval (low). Mainly started as audience feedback in theatre I think.

Archeron

If its a deaf person on stage, you hold your hands up in the air and do fast jazz hands so they can see your appreciation.
Thank you QI

Duggys Housemate

Disapproval is slow.

im invisible

*slow hand clap*

Potential-Monke

I facking hate people who clap when a plane lands. You're congratulating the person whose job it is to do his job. S/He gets paid a crazy amount of money to get you there safely. I'd clap if we were in an emergency and he saved us from imminent death, but other than that.

leggo

Potential-Monke wrote: »

I facking hate people who clap when a plane lands. You're congratulating the person whose job it is to do his job. S/He gets paid a crazy amount of money to get you there safely. I'd clap if we were in an emergency and he saved us from imminent death, but other than that.

Yeah, I get you. To balance it out, I also clap whenever a bus or train driver reaches their destination.

I_smell_fear

for the handicapped?

I_smell_fear

I_smell_fear wrote: »

for the handiclapped?

fyp,

Anyway, it's to scare away the flies, or at least create a hostile environment for them! :pac:

Potential-Monke

leggo wrote: »

Yeah, I get you. To balance it out, I also clap whenever a bus or train driver reaches their destination.

You must have very raw palms, and the clapping can't help...

Fromthetrees

I just click my fingers repeatedly when I appreciate something while saying this mellow is jive man...

http://www.superhooper.org/images/normal_snapping_fingers.gif

Fizzlesque

py2006 wrote: »

I'm not suggesting we don't do it. Its more how did it come to be. When you think of what we are actually doing, it is quite odd.

I don't know how it came to be, and I appreciate that it's what people do at the end of a show or play and why they do, but I can never bring myself to do it. Just feels so peculiar and wrong, for me. I look at the audience when they're clapping and it always strikes me as a really odd thing we (well, not me 'cause I can't) do. I have tried, but the strangeness of it makes me have to stop.

leggo

Potential-Monke wrote: »

You must have very raw palms, and the clapping can't help...

You wouldn't believe it man. I have to masturbate with a surgical glove.

bnt

If I wrote a jaunty guitar piece called "Clap", but the singer introduced it as "The Clap", I'd be a bit hacked off. I'd be doubly hacked off if the live recording was included on the album as "The Clap", but Steve Howe didn't mind, and the name has stuck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezgpkImB2M

biko

They clap because they be happy, doh.

December2012

It must be a natural reflex or instinct.

Babies clap hands when they are happy.

Sykk

scamalert wrote: »

BTW i always clap when plane lands.

There is a special kind of place for people like you :mad:

Krispie

bnt wrote: »

I don't mind people clapping to music, as long as they clap on the 3, not on the 1, in a 4/4 song. It's 1 2 3 4 , 1 2 3 4 ... :cool: If that's too complicated, just listen for the snare drum - that's where you clap, people.

To be pedantic, you clap on the 1,2,3,4, not on the three in a 4/4 signature. :P

Clapping when a plane lands The pilot is just doing his f**king job. I'd think my boss was a simple creature if he clapped when I finished a project.

py2006

Heres what wiki-wiki-wikipedia have to say about it:

The ancient Romans had a set ritual of applause for public performances, expressing degrees of approval: snapping the finger and thumb, clapping with the flat or hollow palm, waving the flap of the toga, for which the emperor Aurelian substituted handkerchiefs (orarium) that he had distributed to the Roman people.[1] In Roman theatre, at the close of the play, the chief actor called out "Valete et plaudite!", and the audience, guided by an unofficial choregus, chanted their applause antiphonally. This was often organized and paid for.[2]
Similarly, a claque (French for "clapping") was an organized body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses who were paid by the performer(s) to create the illusion of an increased level of approval by the audience.
In Christianity, customs of the theatre were adopted by the churches. Eusebius [3] says that Paul of Samosata encouraged the congregation to applaud his preaching by waving linen cloths (οθοναις), and in the 4th and 5th centuries applause of the rhetoric of popular preachers had become an established custom. Applause in church eventually fell out of fashion, however, and partly by the influence of the quasi-religious atmosphere of the performances of Richard Wagner's operas at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, the reverential spirit that inspired this soon extended back to the theatre and the concert hall.

bnt

Krispie wrote: »

To be pedantic, you clap on the 1,2,3,4, not on the three in a 4/4 signature. :P

OK - I must have been thinking of 4/4 half time. I don't mind, as long as all people cease and desist from clapping on the 1. :cool:

Nothingbetter2d

py2006 wrote: »

...well I know its a sign of appreciation.

But, do you ever think about why exactly do we slap two parts of our body together to make a noise? Why is that a sign of appreciation? Who was the first person to propose we do that when we like something?

(grabs coat, goes to pub)

How come humans are the only species that kiss?

py2006

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

How come humans are the only species that kiss?

ewww kissing is icky!

conorhal

flutterflye wrote: »

These things always bug me too.
It's really stupid to me.
I mean I know there has to be some universal way of showing appreciation or whatever it is you want to express at the time, but it just seems very sheeple like or something.
The same as putting your hands up at a concert and things like that.
Or when I was younger and went to mass, I used to find it funny that everyone would stand, kneel, sit etc... at the same times, just because 'that's what you do'!

Lord save us from the '2 kool for skool' kids that stand at the back of a concert nodding to each other as an expression of their appreciation for each others impeccable taste and then, when the crowd goes wild for some big anthemic number, wonder off the bar to discuss how much better the band's earlier albums were before they became so 'sell out popular'.

Go on, get in there into the mosh pit, throw you hands in the air with extatic abandon, clap your appreciation till your hands are stinging and live a little for God's sake....

JohnMarston

I'll applaud a pilot that got us there ahead of schedule. But not just for doing their job. A lot of jobs are thankless so why should certain groups only get applause?

How do ye feel about applauding after a film ends in the cinema?

Jester252

JohnMarston wrote: »

I'll applaud a pilot that got us there ahead of schedule. But not just for doing their job. A lot of jobs are thankless so why should certain groups only get applause?

How do ye feel about applauding after a film ends in the cinema?

You do know most fly times are over-estimated so they look good. The pilot didn't get you there faster.
Its just stupid to clap at the end of a film. Its not like their going to hear it.

uncle_sam_ie

Lol, clapping when the plane lands, I've only seen the Irish do this.