I seem to recall that Europeans whistle with jeers, but in this weekend’s British Open, they were whistling with cheers. Is my recollection wrong? Has the practice changed? Were the whistles from American visitors? Something else?
<smurfs>Yes, we do now whistle with cheers.</smurfs>
La la la la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la la la…
Yes, although like myself, many simply cannot do the loud-whistle-with-fingers-in-mouth (it’s a working class thing, I believe 
).
I glug with cheers:
“Cheers!” glug
Thanks, Mangetout. When did that change?
I’m was not aware that it had changed…
Like Mangetout, I’m not aware that whistling was ever a form of ‘jeering’… it’s hard to imagine a derogatory whistle, in fact (if you can do one, please mail an mp3 of it to me)
And I would agree that the fingers-in-mouth-whistle is a working class thing, because I can’t do it either… @D
Odd. All my life, I’ve heard that whistling in European crowds and galleries is a form of jeering, an expression of contempt. Just to make sure that I’m not insane, I Googled and found inumerable references, like these two:
A recent review of Striker Pro 2000 Soccer Game:
As far back as 1935, when Haile Selassie visited the League of Nations:
But more directly, this site says of whistling in America:
but
You can understand how, if whistling is now cheering, it might appear that something has changed.
How strange. The football thing doesn’t exactly say that whistling=jeering, more that they were whistling AND jeering in an attempt to distract the ref…
Who knows what Italians are thinking? Maybe it was just being generally disrepectful? Or perhaps they were whistling a certain tune?.
But the only whistling I’ve ever heard at public events is cheering, or occasionally an attempt to distract someone at a vital moment (serving in a tennis match, say) but that would be rare.
Again, perhaps it means whistling a derogatory tune… e.g ‘Colonel Bogey’ when playing the Germans or something like that…
Thank you. Maybe it’s just an old fogey thing. If any of you would be so kind as to ask your elders, I would appreciate it very much.
(By the way, note that when I’ve heard what I’ve described at European events, the whistling was NOT accompanied with applause. It was merely cacophonous whistles without any cheering at all which, believe me, sounds very weird and forboding.)
Here’s another reference at ESPNStar:
That seems pretty unambiguous.
And another from CNNSI
It doesn’t seem that Barcelona would cheer for Madrid.
Finally, Paul Henderson of the NHL, said in an interview
Actually, my experience is that whistling is used in both ways over here, but mostly negative. Maybe I misunderstood it all the time???
When I think about it I have rarely been at any public event where the audience was unilaterally opposed to something and hence I sometimes took the whistling as disapproval sometimes not (probably depending on my own encampment at the moment if I try to be analytical about it).
Further it tends to jar me when people whistle at the opera (rare, but happens), which is obviously done in appreciation. I still felt that it was inappropriate due to the possible negative connotation I attached. I might have been prejudiced.
Hmmm I’m very confused now.
???
Sparc
Me, too.
I can tell you that at the rare musical event at which the sensibilities of the listeners are seriously offended (in Europe), there will, indeed, be whistles heard from the audience. Often boos AND whistles. It’s very clear what those sounds mean - deep displeasure and derision. I’ve often felt a certain sympathy for Europeans who wind up playing in American orchestras and who, after a wonderful rendition of some piece or another, must cringe when hearing whistles among the cheers.
Must be a UK vs. Continental Europe thing. I’ve often heard whistling at the Olympics and possibly European tennis matches to indicate displeasure with a judges decision or bad behavior on a player’s part. Perhaps [b/Coldfire** can give us the Straight Dope.
At the Sydney Olympics, the US mens relay team danced around, draped in the American flag, and generally made fools of themselves for an extended period. When asked about it later, at least one of them remarked that they thought that the whistling by the crowd indicated that they crowd was appreciative of their antics. Of course, just the opposite was true, and the whistling was being done to show displeasure with the cocky young goofballs.
Ah. Very possibly that. Maybe Coldfire will wander by. It’s just too weird to have people who were positively taken by surprise by the question while there are so many sources saying that whistles are derisive.
I wonder also whether it might just be more of the general Americanizing of world culture. You know, today Britain, tomorrow the world kind of thing.
I remember hearing about that one, too.
OK This one got to me so much I had to check on the web and with a few people I know around the continent.
There is indeed a division between the continent and the Isles. As of yet I don’t have definitive answers for all parts.
So far I can say that in Scandinavia, France, Spain, Italy and Russia it is a sign of extreme disproval.
Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic seem a little undecided. Generally it is considered a pretty offensive jeer, but I found several instances of German texts that referred to appreciative whistling in connection to applause. Folks I then asked seemed pretty much to agree that it is a jeer, but that it sometimes can be a cheer if in connection with thundering applause, Spain and Czech Republic was told to be that way as well.
I would surmise we can assume that it’s somewhere along those two lines in Benelux, Lichtenstein, and much of Eastern Europe although I didn’t bother to check specifically.
My Dutch is so rusty that it’s too bothersome to read my way through the sites and I had no one to ask, I am sure Coldfire can answer if he pops by. Did not check for Ireland since I believe there are others in the membership, such as TwistofFate, yojimbo, jjimm or ruadh that would be able to answer.
I might have more on other parts at a later point.
Sparc
Sorry got Spain in twice. It belongs in the ‘most often a jeer, but…’ group. Had it in group 1 based on my reading and then during a phone call with someone located in the region in q it was clarified.
Sparc