This has come up a number of times, but I’ll be danged if I can find any threads on it. Anyway, you know the routine, something happens, and one person starts clapping. Then another. Then more. Then everyone.
IIRC, the *earliest this attested was in “Brubaker” (1980). In the 1974 Roy Campanella biopic “It’s Good to Be Alive,” there is a similar scene. Toward the end of the movie, after Winfield’s Campanella makes his first publica appearance in the baseball stadium. He chokes up after saying a few words. Then, one player starts clapping, then the others, etc.
*Again, I can’t be sure since I can’t find any of the old threads.
The Slow Clap has been identified by Roger Ebert, though it doesn’t have its own entry in the Little Movie Glossary.
In his Answer Man column, Ebert published a letter from a reader tracing the evolution of the Slow Clap to Citizen Kane, where Kane attempts to give his wife a curtain call after her wretched opera performance. Unfortunately, as no one joined, I don’t think this can be considered the first true Slow Clap.
Wasn’t there a slow clap scene in Rocky IV- after Rocky’s victory over Ivan Drago, and he gave that little speech about “if we can do it, maybe all youse can too!”, I seem to remember the Gorbachev-esque President standing and starting the slow clap, then the whole politburo joined in, then everyone else in attendance.
The godawfullest Slow Clap I ever saw was in the misguided '80s Jackie Chan vehicle The Protector. Jackie is a cop who just Can’t Play By the Rules, and after he tells off his captain and gets suspended (or something), he walks back to the squad room, where he is given a Slow Clap by his fellow boys in blue. The movie is already so full of clichés as to be beyond satire; the Slow Clap turns it into something far hokeyer than anything Chan attempted in his HK films.
I have seen this enough times to feel that it’s a definite cliché. I still can’t think of any good examples in my head, though I have a faint feeling that the scene takes place in the end of Cool Runnings.
Wasn’t there one after the “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech in The Pride of the Yankees, from 1942?
If it wasn’t The Pride of the Yankees, it was another black-and-white sports movie from that era. Someone makes a speech in the center of a huge, packed, silent stadium. As he walks off, one unseen person somewhere in the stands begins a slow clap. Someone else takes it up, etc., until the entire place is thundering.
The best Slow Clap scene is in an episode of “The King of Queens”.
International Parcel Service drive Doug Heffernan is proud, as he is well on his way to breaking a long-standing driver record for number of days “without incident”. This engenders much hostility among older drivers, who remember the original record holder fondly, and think Doug is getting too big for his britches. Even his best friend Deacon is miffed, as his own run at the record was thwarted by an action of Doug’s.
After a buildup to the obligatory crisis of faith, and a very close call on the record-breaking delivery, Doug walks slowly into IPS headquarters, punches out his time card, and quietly, humbly announces to those assembled, “No incidents”.
Deacon stands up sheepishly and begins a Slow Clap. Just as the applause is barely beginning to catch on with one or two other drivers, someone walks in from outside and calls out, “Sandwich Truck!” All clapping ceases immediately and everyone leaves.