# Handshakes to knucks - what's knext?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 9, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853 "2010-03-09T14:58:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853/21 "2010-03-10T00:31:45Z")

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> [@Duke](#):
>
> [Christian Side Hug](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Oj0-splZw&feature=related) seems to be all the rage with the with-it whippersnappers these days…

What the everliving fuck was that?

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**Author:** ![McGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f4b2a3/32.png) [@McGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McGeek)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853/22 "2010-03-10T15:35:10Z")

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> [@Duke](#):
>
> [Christian Side Hug](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Oj0-splZw&feature=related) seems to be all the rage with the with-it whippersnappers these days…

Man if I’d been drinking anything just then, it would have come out my nose, that was so bizarely funny.

I have had some close friends - who hate shaking hands because of germs. FTR, these were all men, not women. One is my husband, who patronizingly explains to me, “You don’t know how gross men’s restrooms are.” A couple of months back during the swine flu panic, there were places enacting rules against handshaking, and some guy claiming a handshake actually qualifies as assault.

I was brought up in a family where everyone quotes my great-grandma’s philosophy about germs: “you eat a peck of dirt before you die.” But being married to a germophobe has moved me somewhat toward his view, and now I am more leary of handshakes than I used to be.

So the “knucks” or the fistbump is a good alternative.

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**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853/23 "2010-03-10T15:48:57Z")

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In West Africa, all handshakes are finished off with a little finger snap at the end.

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853/24 "2010-03-10T15:53:10Z")

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> [@even\_sven](#):
>
> In West Africa, all handshakes are finished off with a little finger snap at the end.

I think Huggy Bear used to do that, too.

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**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/handshakes-to-knucks-whats-knext/531853/25 "2010-03-10T15:53:37Z")

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> [@even\_sven](#):
>
> In West Africa, all handshakes are finished off with a little finger snap at the end.

That is also very common in U.S. black culture. But like pounds or daps or terrorist fist jabs, these are all done by men, almost exclusively.

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