# Is the "high five" really as new as Wikipedia says? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 30, 2018, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123 "2018-05-30T11:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/41 "2018-05-31T23:04:05Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Also, let’s make sure we’re not conflating the High 5 with the Gimme 5. The Gimme 5 (waist high, hands horizontal) has been around forever. The High 5 (vertical, head-height) is the more recent development, credited to Dusty Baker & Glenn Burke. Yeah, but the high five evolved from the gimme five, clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/42 "2018-06-01T01:30:30Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > When I was in college in the early 1970s we used to do “gimme five.” And as a joke, we used to do variants, like “gimme five high,” and “gimme five low,” and “gimme ten” with both hands. (Also, “gimme five the hard way” with four fingers on one hand and one on the other.) But “gimmie five high” was with your hand flat at shoulder level, not raised high as in a high-five. > [@UltraVires](#): > > It seems to me that the high five has been totally replaced by the fist bump. What few grade schoolers I know seem to be familiar with both. But the fist bump has scores of silly variants, similar in some ways to the variants of “Gimme five” (or the secret handshake) during the 1970s. Variants of fist bump: ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/43 "2018-06-01T01:59:10Z")
A memorable early 1970’s [“Candid Camera” episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdd1XK1ZUr4) featured Muhammad Ali telling a kid, “Gimme five… I would give you thirty, but your face is too dirty”. ---
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/44 "2018-06-05T05:18:21Z")
A lengthy article about the “high five” from 1981. Most interesting: it might have originated with women volleyball players way back in the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/45 "2018-06-05T11:37:26Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > It seems to me that the high five has been totally replaced by the fist bump. I think you mean [Respect knuckles.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYGuQlQseHU) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/46 "2024-08-23T18:13:43Z")
This makes sense to me; my recollection was it became a thing around then. Watch Youtube videos of sporting events from the early 1970s. No high fives. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2024, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123/47 "2024-08-29T22:50:02Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Remember _Hoosiers_, the Gene Hackman movie about a small-town high school basketball team that improbably wins the state championship? > > It was filmed here in Indiana, using a lot of local people as extras for the crowd scenes. One story that’s been told many times around here is that various extras kept high-fiving each other, and the director had to repeatedly stop filming and yell at them to quit doing that, because it’s supposed to be the 1950s, and people didn’t high-five then. I worked as a PA (Production Assistant) on _Hoosiers_. Another instruction the crew gave the extras in celebration scenes was not to hold up a single finger in a “we’re number one!” manner. It apparently wasn’t a thing in the 1950’s. As far as the high five in general, as I recall it was strictly “low fives” for a long time. The high-five was much later. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-high-five-really-as-new-as-wikipedia-says/815123.md?page=2)