# "Air quotes" are still quotes! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 5, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243 "2015-03-05T03:34:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/1 "2015-03-05T03:34:57Z")
Not necessarily “scare” quotes. At least, that’s my curmudgeonly opinion. Two different people recently took exception to my quoting verbatim something someone had said, and doing the quote gesture with the first two fingers of each hand to indicate such. They felt that this could only be used to mean that I disagreed with, or was ridiculing, the content of the quotes, which I was not. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/2 "2015-03-05T04:39:50Z")
I take exception to people using quotes (in print) when what they want to use is italics. They’re trying to emphasize something, not look stupid. The office kitchen is “clean” please keep it that way. (Clean, like not really clean?) “Fresh” bananas on sale today, only 38¢/lb. (I see that want far too often, and every time I see it I think “I wonder how fresh “fresh” is”) I was going to dig up some examples on the internet and found a while [blog](http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/) full of them. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/3 "2015-03-05T04:45:28Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I take exception to people using quotes (in print) when what they want to use is italics. They’re trying to emphasize something, not look stupid. The _issue_ is that italics don’t show well on some sites leading people to quotes, **bold** and underlining. OR all caps on a stray word here and there. Whichever is fastest. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/4 "2015-03-05T04:52:12Z")
Hm. I tend to say the word in speech, that I’m quoting someone, rather than use air quotes. I would probably find someone doing air quotes for a real quote a little off-putting as I do expect to see air quotes used sarcastically rather than to indicate truth. And yes, the quotes in print just make the sign maker look like an idiot. If nothing else, just underline it. The ones that are on actual paid-for signs are just killing me! I wonder if some of that is coming from the inability to italicize in social media, and those people also use quotes there instead of the _asterisk_ that I’ve learned to use for emphasis since I can’t bold or italicize. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/5 "2015-03-05T04:56:54Z")
There is an amusement park near here that has a diving horse. When it’s raining, the ramp is wet so it’s too dangerous for him to dive. There is a sign in the front entrance for those occasions that says **Lightening is “resting” today**. That sign always cracks me up. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/6 "2015-03-05T05:05:00Z")
The elders went to the minister and warned him that he was on probation: his sermons were boring, terrible, and stupid. He responded with a series of stunning, mind & soul expanding, God-centered sermons. Gleefully the elders extended his contract. “There’s just one thing”, they asked after the contract was signed, “What is that with waving your fingers up high in the air before and after the sermon?” ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/7 "2015-03-05T05:35:30Z")
> [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > And yes, the quotes in print just make the sign maker look like an idiot. If nothing else, just underline it. The ones that are on actual paid-for signs are just killing me! I wonder if some of that is coming from the inability to italicize in social media, and those people also use quotes there instead of the _asterisk_ that I’ve learned to use for emphasis since I can’t bold or italicize. Stop standing in the way of progress. 🆒 Pretty soon, so many people will be “quoting” when they mean to _italicize_ that it’s just going to become **correct**. So I can say something like “literally”? and be one confusing mothafucka!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/8 "2015-03-05T06:10:17Z")
I’m with **SeaDragonTattoo**. When talking to someone, I’ll say the word “quote” and then the actual quoted phrase. If it’s a long quote or it’d potentially be unclear where the quote ended, I might say, “end quote”. I feel like a tool saying that, though, so usually I indicate it with adjusting my tone slightly. Air bunnies are for sarcasm! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/9 "2015-03-05T06:16:18Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The elders went to the minister and warned him that he was on probation: his sermons were boring, terrible, and stupid. He responded with a series of stunning, mind & soul expanding, God-centered sermons. Gleefully the elders extended his contract. “There’s just one thing”, they asked after the contract was signed, “What is that with waving your fingers up high in the air before and after the sermon?” I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/10 "2015-03-05T06:48:25Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Not necessarily “scare” quotes. At least, that’s my curmudgeonly opinion. > > Two different people recently took exception to my quoting verbatim something someone had said, and doing the quote gesture with the first two fingers of each hand to indicate such. They felt that this could only be used to mean that I disagreed with, or was ridiculing, the content of the quotes, which I was not. Getting back to the OP… We know if quotation marks are marking stance from the larger context. That goes for print as well as speech (air quotes). So why couldn’t these two people understand from the larger context of what you were saying that you were not in fact distancing yourself from the content of the quotes? ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/11 "2015-03-05T07:20:15Z")
Maybe it goes back farther than this, but I think the reason air quotes can’t be taken seriously is because of [Chris Farley](https://screen.yahoo.com/chris-farley-bennett-brauer-000000118.html). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/12 "2015-03-05T07:27:50Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I don’t get it. I think the implication is that the pastor was quoting someone else’s sermon? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/13 "2015-03-05T09:11:55Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Air bunnies are for sarcasm! 😃 So everyone seems to think, but I’m just stubbornly refusing to accept this. To me, \*sarcasm \*is for sarcasm. As in, tone of voice, an eyeroll if you really need it, etc. It’s getting so people use the air quotes not even to sarcastically quote someone, but just to indicate sarcasm that isn’t a quote! Nononononono. Nuh uh. Not gonna do it. > [@guizot](#): > > Getting back to the OP… > > We know if quotation marks are marking stance from the larger context. That goes for print as well as speech (air quotes). So why couldn’t these two people understand from the larger context of what you were saying that you were not in fact distancing yourself from the content of the quotes? That’s an excellent question. I guess they did know \*something \*was up, or they wouldn’t have said anything (just assuming I was snarking and not commenting on it). Seems that to them it was jarring, in a similar way as if I had said something like “Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great man” with a super sarcastic tone of voice and an eyeroll, or miming puking or something. It’s frustrating, because to me if someone is looking at you while you are talking, this is much smoother than “quote” and “unquote”. And BTW, I am virtually physically incapable of saying something like “His response was quote unquote, Just try it.” If I were to use that clunky verbal method of quoting at all, it would be: “His response was quote, Just try it, unquote.” It is nails on a chalkboard to hear people putting the “unquote” before they have quoted anything–it makes NO SENSE. Relatedly, it also bugs when people take a passage like this: > [@](#): > > John called out to Mary, “See you tomorrow”, before driving away. and quote it as follows: “John called out to Mary, “See you tomorrow”, before driving away.” Yuck. I feel like I’m pretty much the only one I’ve ever noticed online (in comment sections or message boards, I mean, as opposed to actual articles) who, when copying and pasting something within quotes, makes sure to go through and change all the double quotes extant within it to single quotes. So I would always make sure the above was changed to: “John called out to Mary, ‘See you tomorrow’, before driving away.” And yes: you may have noticed that I prefer to have within the quotes only what punctuation comes from the source–hence the comma outside the quoted phrase above. Style guides generally say either way is acceptable but I strongly prefer my way. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/14 "2015-03-05T10:46:10Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Style guides generally say either way is acceptable but I strongly prefer my way. Did that change? I thought in the U.S. It was still commas and periods inside the quotes, colons and semi-colons outside. Do you have a cite? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/15 "2015-03-05T11:35:09Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Did that change? I thought in the U.S. It was still commas and periods inside the quotes, colons and semi-colons outside. Do you have a cite? Maybe you’re right. When I Google the question, the top hit (which also calls itself “your #1 source for grammar and punctuation”) says the following: > [@](#): > > The rules set forth in this section are customary in the United States. Great Britain and other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations are governed by quite different conventions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Rule 3a in this section, a rule that has the advantage of being far simpler than Britain’s and the disadvantage of being far less logical. > [@](#): > > Rule 3a. Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks. I like things that are logical. Furthermore, I was born in the British Commonwealth, and all the members (except me) of the nuclear family I grew up in are now naturalized citizens of a different Commonwealth country. So I’m going to take the prerogative of using this convention that I like better. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/16 "2015-03-05T11:36:49Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > The _issue_ is that italics don’t show well on some sites leading people to quotes, **bold** and underlining. OR all caps on a stray word here and there. Whichever is fastest. Bold, underline and all caps are fine. They’re all still for emphasis. But quotes are just “wrong”. By which I mean **WRONG**. Do some people really not see the difference? ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/17 "2015-03-05T11:49:59Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I like things that are logical. Furthermore, I was born in the British Commonwealth, and all the members (except me) of the nuclear family I grew up in are now naturalized citizens of a different Commonwealth country. So I’m going to take the prerogative of using this convention that I like better. 😛 😃 Actually, I always suspected this convention would change as a result of computers’ need for users to follow literal directions. If the direction is… > [@](#): > > In the first field, type “USA,” hit enter, and then respond to the subsequent prompt. …there’s a certain ambiguity. Should one type “USA” or should one type “USA,”? Apparently that ambiguity has not prompted the evolution. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/18 "2015-03-05T12:11:48Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > I don’t get it. Religious “humor” is rarely “funny”. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/19 "2015-03-05T12:32:15Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > There is an amusement park near here that has a diving horse. When it’s raining, the ramp is wet so it’s too dangerous for him to dive. There is a sign in the front entrance for those occasions that says **Lightening is “resting” today**. That sign always cracks me up. So, a little visit to the glue factory, eh? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243/20 "2015-03-05T16:37:40Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > . . .Furthermore, I was born in the British Commonwealth, and all the members (except me) of the nuclear family I grew up in are now naturalized citizens of a different Commonwealth country. So I’m going to take the prerogative of using this convention that I like better. 😛 That makes perfect sense–go ahead and put the commas, etc., outside of the quotes. Just be aware that that’s how we catch Canadians pretending to be from the U.S., and they get promptly booted back north of the border. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-quotes-are-still-quotes/714243.md?page=2)