High five

"Gimme five" redirects here. For the ITV children's show, see Gimme 5.

CBS “The Early Show” weatherman Dave Price high-fives with Captain Michael Fitzpatrick, in east Baghdad December 31, 2008.

The high five is a celebratory hand gesture that occurs when two people simultaneously raise one hand, about head high, and push, slide or slap the flat of their palm and hand against the palm and flat hand of their partner. The originator of the high five is a subject of controversy.

In the United States, there is an initiative to celebrate the third Thursday of April as National High Five Day.

Origin

The origins of the term are said to belong to sports, specifically US Basketball, and the use of the phrase as a noun has been part of the Oxford English Dictionary since 1980 and as a verb since 1981. The gesture takes its name from the 'five' fingers and the raising of the hand 'high'. According to an article published on the Outsports web site, the first high five in baseball occurred between Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers in late 1977. This report has been challenged by Lamont Sleets, who played basketball for Murray State University and claims to be the originator of the high five in the 1960s. The 1980 NCAA Men's Basketball National Champions, the Louisville Cardinals, are widely credited for popularizing the gesture for their frequent utilization of it during their run to the title.

Variations

In addition to the standard high five, several types of "five" exist, and this factor adds variety to the experience, which tends to maximize the satisfaction of participants. The "low five" had already been known, during the 1940s, in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) as "giving skin" or "slapping skin".

A related gesture, the "high ten" involves the initiator raising two hands simultaneously to another person, and then making contact with both the reciprocator's hands. This is also commonly known as a "double high five".

If one initiates a high five (or any variation thereof) by offering a hand, and no reciprocal hand appears to consummate the gesture, the initiator is said to have been "left hanging". This is considered, in social circles, to be somewhat embarrassing, or enlightening, depending on who the person is. Initiating a high five excessively can also be considered quite annoying to non-initiators.

In the 1927 film The Jazz Singer, actor Al Jolson is seen performing 'the low five' in celebration of the news of a Broadway audition. The gesture has since spread to sports and into broader popular culture.

Another variation is Diamond Dallas Page's trademark, the "self high five" and popularized throughout the Pacific Northwest as a cultural trait of the area. The action consists of raising one hand, generally the right hand and tagging it with the other.

"Too slow"

The "too slow" variation of a high five occurs when one appears to be engaging in a high five initiation; however, the initiator succeeds in pulling their hand away before anyone can make contact. This is the only known "five" that may be used as an insult as well as a compliment, and, as early as 1971, was commonly followed by the taunting expression "too slow, buffalo!"

There are many variations on this theme, with additions of "at the side" and other hand positions for the partner to contact the initiator's hand, and thus a greater number of opportunities for the initiator to deceive the victim.

• 
  "Up high."
• 
  "Down low."
• 
  Victim misses.
• 
  "Too slow."

Air five

Two people engaging in air five.

An air five is a variation however, the hands of the participants never physically touch. This is commonly implemented if the participants are too far apart in proximity to engage in the typical high five. The participants may simply pretend to high five, or may make a mouth-noise to emulate the sound, use voices, or even slap the bottom of their forearms simultaneously, to produce a slapping sound similar to a physical high five.

Technique

Performing the high-five can be a challenge for some, and a successful high-five requires close co-ordination between initiator and his or her partner. In order to execute a proper high-five, both participants should focus their eyes on the incoming elbow of the other. Once the vision is locked, each participant promptly moves the arm forward in a slightly descending motion to make contact. Success is indicated by the degree to which the telltale slapping sound creates resonance; a louder, "cleaner" sound indicative of maximum surface area of each hand contacting the other indicates a better high-five. While frequent high-five partners often develop a familiarity and do not require this technique, it is suggested both to high-five beginners and to experienced high-fivers who are beginning to high-five with a new partner.

In popular culture

Blake Rodgers of Rhode Island who high-fived 3,131 people at the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, on September 6, 2008, setting the Guiness World Record for "Most High Fives In 24 Hours". Cotter said: "I love giving high fives. I've been doing it for years, and at festivals before this I've given thousands just for a laugh. It's an entire conversation, without words." On August 13, 2005, the fans of the Minor League baseball team, the Lakewood BlueClaws established the Guinness Book of World Records for simultaneous "high fives."

In 2009, New Zealander Alastair Galpin of WorldRecordChase.com set a new Guinness World Record for "most High Fives in a minute". The event took place at a sports stadium and a total of 76 High Fives took place within the minute. Details of this record appear on WorldRecordChase.com.

In January 2010, Canadians Sam Stilson and Craig Morrison of The Record Collection set a world record for "longest high five". Each of them ran toward the other from a distance of 3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi) before meeting for a high five on Yonge Street in Toronto. The feat is listed in the Universal Record Database.

There have been examples (musical, comedic, etc.) of the high five in pop culture:

• In the 2008 movie Semi-Pro, Woody Harrelson's character (Ed Monix) has the "Too Slow" high five executed on him by Rob Corddry's character (Kyle) during Monix's first visit to Lynn's (Maura Tierney) home after he has been traded to the Flint Tropics.
• The Pink song U + Ur Hand (2006) indicates "You know who you are / High fivin', talking (expletive) / But you're going home alone arentcha".
• The Jay-Z song Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) (2009) has Jay-Z "[s]itting courtside, Knicks and Nets give me high fives".
• "The Todd" from the series Scrubs will initiate high fives excessively.
• Barney Stinson from the series How I Met Your Mother will celebrate various conquests with a high five; sometimes even utilizing the "hypothetical" high five.
• David Puddy of Seinfeld is prone to giving strangers the high five, usually as a greeting, when it is neither suitable nor appropriate.
• In the episode of The Office entitled "Halloween", Jim and Pam engage in the air five variation of the high five while they are both sitting at their respective workstations.
• In the short-lived animated MTV series Clone High, Gandhi's clone is fond of high fives. In Season 1, Episode 10, Litter Kills; the Gandhi character requests under-the-table fives from the Joan of Arc character when she visits him in jail. An example of a high five "left hanging" can be seen in Season 1, Episode 3, A.D.D.: The Last 'D' Is for Disorder.
• The gang in Saved by the Bell would frequently participate in a group high five at the end of the show. The camera would typically freeze on the high five right before the credits started.
• The high five also featured prominently in the recurring sketch "The High-Five’n White Guys" on the Seattle comedy show Almost Live!
• Sacha Noam Baron Cohen, during his run on "Da Ali G Show" often initiated the traditional high five in a humorous manner. Cohen's character Borat Sagdiyev would initiate high fives upon first learning of and telling strangers of his wife's death in the film Borat and numerous media appearances plugging the film.
• In the Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires", Peter and Cleveland engage in a "slap five" sequence that includes meeting at a certain address in an hour to slap five.
• The Local H song High-Fiving MF.
• In the video game Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake and Otacon exchange a high five leading into a handshake.
• During the volleyball scene in Top Gun, the stars high fived by slapping hands above their heads in the conventional manner and then low down (as the two high five-ees walk past each other)
• The 1994 film Blank Check shows a variant, where a hand is offered for a high five, then suddenly removed and slid through the slide of the hair. This variant, also referred to as "the Slick", is performed also in the episode "The World Series Defense" of the television show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
• Dean Martin is seen to initiate a high five with Louis Armstrong after their rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In" in an episode of the Dean Martin Show that aired on September 26, 1966.
• In the 1941 Abbott & Costello film In The Navy, in which the Andrews Sisters perform the song "Gimme Some Skin, My Friend". During this musical number, high fives and high tens (see below) are frequently exchanged by the performers in the revue.
• In the 1991 movie Terminator 2, John Connor teaches the T-800 how to high five.
• On a Flash Back episode to the 60's of "Las Vegas (TV series)" episode "Everything Old Is You Again", Mike And Danny do A "High Five" and wonder what they just did.

External links

• High Five Me includes further information on the history and different forms of the high five, plus detailed information on the science of the high five..
• here.