High five
There are many origin stories of the high five,[3] but the first and two most documented candidates are Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke of the Los Angeles Dodgers professional baseball team on October 2, 1977, and Wiley Brown and Derek Smith of the Louisville Cardinals men's college basketball team during the 1978–1979 season.
[4] Magic Johnson once suggested that he invented the high five at Michigan State, presumably in the late 1970s.
[7] As journalist Jon Mooallem tells the story: It was a wild, triumphant moment and a good omen as the Dodgers headed to the playoffs.
Burke, waiting on deck, thrust his hand enthusiastically over his head to greet his friend at the plate.
He provides no date or location for invention, only that it was a thing that he and teammate Greg Kelser did on occasion while playing for Michigan State.
[11] In a 2007 press release, two comedy writers and founders of the "National High Five Day" claimed that a late 1970s and early '80s basketball player from Murray State University had invented the gesture.
[15] Conventional wisdom holds that the Tokyo district of Roppongi earned the slogan of "High Touch Town" after residents noticed World War II American soldiers walking the streets giving each other high-fives; when the Japanese asked about the gesture it was mistranslated as hai tatchi or "high touch".
[16] This story is possibly apocryphal, as Hiroyuki Usui, a representative of the Roppongi Shopkeepers Promotion Association explains, "There is no deep meaning in 'High Touch Town'.
It was often used by professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page as part of his persona, such as in "Self High Five," his theme song in World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
[28] The origin of the too slow variation has not been established, but the earliest documented instance is a 1982 news article in the Evansville Courier & Press.
A robot named Fubar interacted with customers: "'Gimme three brother' he tells a shopper as he extends a golden hand with that many fingers.
"[29] Other notable sources have made reference to it; for example a 1983 journal is quoted as saying, "Whether we hammer, or hoe, whoop or holler, as they say, slap five up high, down low, you're too slow, we do it with the rhythmic motif that leads to harmony.
[32] In the New York Times archives, the earliest reference is from 1993 when Arnold Schwarzenegger did it with the son of a film-crew member while on the set of Last Action Hero, saying: "Let's have five.
[35] The rhyme bears a striking resemblance to a very old work song, possibly medieval, used by blacksmiths to teach apprentices how to best operate a bellows in a way that maximized its efficiency by opening it fully and quickly, while closing it slowly.
"[36][37] An air five is a variation where the hands of the participants never actually touch, needing only line of sight to make the gesture.
The participants may simply pretend to high five, or add an imitation sound of hand slapping.
[41] According to the National High Five Project, the event began in 2002 at the University of Virginia after a group of students set up a booth and gave out high-fives and lemonade.
[43][44] A 2014 medical study found that fist bumps and high fives spread fewer germs than handshakes.
[45][46][47] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the high-five was "singled out, stigmatized and fraught with anxiety", being replaced by gestures such as knocking elbows, tapping forearms, or clicking cleats.
