# Why do we applaud **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718 "2008-04-24T18:08:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/1 "2008-04-24T18:08:28Z")
Simple question really, why/who/what when did the practice of clapping hands in appreciation come into being ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/2 "2008-04-24T18:34:15Z")
I did some research on this a while ago. I had these links saved. I haven’t checked them recently, and I don’t have time to right now. [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/music/s\_490296.html](http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/music/s_490296.html) > **[BBC - Radio 4 - Clappers: A History of Applause](https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/clappers.shtml)** > > Information about the Radio 4 factual programme Clappers: A History of Applause > **[BBC News | UK | Sincere claptrap](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/943476.stm)** > > Unlike Mo Mowlam, not every politician can expect a standing ovation at conference. But there are certain devices to help ensure an audience shows its appreciation. [http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/02/applause\_a\_rest.html](http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/02/applause_a_rest.html) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/3 "2008-04-24T19:02:58Z")
Applause, or “clapping,” traces its origins to an ancient and rare Zulu rite of passage in which a young man (kl’rt) lures a lion into a village whereon he attacks and (hopefully) slays it. Unlike other similar “coming of age” rites, this one was purely voluntary. If successful, the kl’rt immediately replaced the sitting village chieftain and assumed his leadership role. In this way the Zulu avoided a common pitfall of nepotic rule which dominated European politics and precluded potentially outstanding rulers based on unfortunate birth. The rite would begin by the kl’rt ‘s declaration that he would perform the “drawing in of the king” of the savannah and do battle with him. 5 towers, approximately 20 feet high, were erected on the perimeter of the village and were manned day and night to keep watch for the return of the kl’rt and a large bonfire was kept burning in the center of the village in case of a night return (partly to help the kl’rt locate his village in the dead of night and partly to allow the rest of the village to witness the battle). Using a daring and cunning combination of taunt and elusion, the kl’rt would lead the lion to the village and then, when he was within about a quarter mile of the village he would break into a sprint to the battleground while calling to the village at the top of his lungs an ancient Bantu chant “Here comes the king, I lead him to you to deliver you from your false ruler and to place me at your head!” Early Roman observers of the rite described the “chant” as more of a scream of terror and contrition, but this can possibly be put down to the effect of a dead run jarring the voice of the kl’rt and making his song difficult to understand. As the kl’rt approached the village and began his song, the first watchtower man would slap two flat pieces of wood together to create a loud and distinctive clapping sound. This would be the signal to the rest of the village that the battle was about to begin. As other watch tower men saw the runner, they too would “clap.” Eventually the entire village would be present and gathering at the village battle ground, and all would take up the clap using their hands. By the time the kl’rt reached the battle ground, the air would be filled with the sound of clapping, the roar of the lion and the defiant cries and taunts of the kl’rt. If the battle turned out in favor of the lion, the clapping would stop immediately as each villager would pick up a weapon so that they could fall upon the lion and subdue it immediately. If, however, the kl’rt was successful, the clapping would continue even as the lion lay dying while the kl’rt strode up to the chieftain and assumed his role as leader of the village. The Romans who witnessed the rite, took the clapping tradition with them to the coliseum and it became the custom that, when a lion was released into the arena, the audience would clap like the Zulus did. It wasn’t long after this that the spectators applied clapping to any event in the arena and the meaning changed somewhat from an alert to a display of approval of a well fought battle. The rest is history. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/4 "2008-04-24T19:31:03Z")
Doesn’t really answer the question, but this might be interesting: [http://www.spiritmag.com/2008\_04/clickthis/04clapping.php](http://www.spiritmag.com/2008_04/clickthis/04clapping.php) Then again, everything seems interesting when you’re on a four hour flight. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/5 "2008-04-24T21:02:42Z")
Actor/director Rob Reiner claims the first joke he wrote was an answer to this very question. He was at home, and his father Carl Reiner was brainstorming with Mel Brooks for material for their “2000 year-old man” sketches. Young Rob suggested that clapping originated like this (poorly quoted, because I don’t remember it well): Before there was clapping, people would react to a great joke or song by smacking their hands to their faces and saying, “Hoo, boy, that was good!” Then, one day, somebody told a good joke right after a great song. People were right in the middle of putting their hands to their faces when they threw back their heads to laugh. Their hands smacked together, and that’s how clapping got started! ---
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/6 "2008-04-24T21:08:47Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] The Romans who witnessed the rite… [/QUOTE] Is this a whoosh? Because I guarantee you that no Roman ever met or saw a Zulu. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/7 "2008-04-24T21:13:06Z")
Wouldn’t it be as simple as just wanting to make noise? You hoot and holler, and in the absence of any bells or drums, the only thing that will make additional noise is thumping your chest or beating your hands together. Clapping is a bit louder than thumping a clothed chest, unless you’re wearing armour. I’m thinking it’s the human equivalent of gorillas beating their chests. (I didn’t check **Gfactor** ’s links.) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/8 "2008-04-24T22:06:26Z")
> [@](#): > > “I think it’s lost in time,” says James Houlik of the origins of applause. As professor of saxophone and co-chair of performance at Duquesne University, he has made a study of applause. [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/music/s\_490296.html](http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/living/music/s_490296.html) [BBC - Radio 4 - Clappers: A History of Applause](http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/clappers.shtml) (has a link to a 30 minute BBC radio piece on the history of applause) [BBC News | UK | Sincere claptrap](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/943476.stm) (study of spontaneous applause–doesn’t talk about history) [Applause: A Rest Is Noise Special Report – Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise](http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/02/applause_a_rest.html) (discussion of the history of applause practice with respect to clapping between movements and the like) ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/9 "2008-04-24T23:32:22Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] Applause, or “clapping,” traces its origins to an ancient and rare Zulu rite of passage in which a young man (kl’rt) lures a lion into a village whereon he attacks and (hopefully) slays it. [/QUOTE] If this is a factual claim, cool, although a citation would be cooler; if it’s a gag, please try to wait a bit longer before starting in with the jokes in General Questions next time. **Gfactor** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/10 "2008-04-25T00:18:21Z")
Babies clap their hands together when delighted. Not in the rhythmic way we do, but I’d call it a clap. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/11 "2008-04-25T00:51:17Z")
[QUOTE=Can Handle the Truth] Is this a whoosh? Because I guarantee you that no Roman ever met or saw a Zulu. [/QUOTE] You’d be hard-pressed to prove that, or at least to prove that there never was any contact between proto-zulus (i.e. eastern Bantus, the Zulus having migrated towards southern Africa relatively recently) and the Romans. More specifically, during the classical Roman era, the ancestors of Zulus were living along the eastern African coast, south of the horn of Africa. Even though there aren’t any specific evidences of Roman navigators or traders having visited this region (but then again the Romans didn’t leave as much written documents as some people tend to believe), there’s at least the finding during the archeological search in Lamu of glass items and of a spearhead thought of as being Roman made, and dated from around 50 AD. Anyway, there are ample proofs of trade between this area and the mediterranean world during the roman era, and even before that, since it’s generallry aknowledged that one of the African people described by the famous Carthaginian explorer Hanno (as reported by Magon) was, indeed, proto-Zulu. The Zulu hypothesis for the origin of clapping, in any case, is well-known and, though certainly not undisputed, quite likely. The main evidences being that : -The Kl’rt custom described by \*\* Inigo Montoya \*\* is well attested, even though it has been abandonned quite a long time ago (in all likehood due to the low rate of success of the Kl’rts). -The aforementionned evidences of contacts between the Romans and proto-Zulu populations on the eastern shores of Africa -The custom of clapping hands is known not only to have been used in Rome, but also to have appeared there (at least as far as Europe is concerned), and is, more importantly, specifically mentionned (in passing) by the 1st century author Vusus as being a novelty that, according to him, \*\* originated in Africa \*\*, where it would have ben used during lion hunts (even though the Kl’rts weren’t exactly your average lion hunters, you couldn’t expect a Latin author who might never have left Italy for all we know to be perfectly aware of the context). ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/12 "2008-04-25T05:56:41Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone] Wouldn’t it be as simple as just wanting to make noise? You hoot and holler, and in the absence of any bells or drums, the only thing that will make additional noise is thumping your chest or beating your hands together. Clapping is a bit louder than thumping a clothed chest, unless you’re wearing armour. I’m thinking it’s the human equivalent of gorillas beating their chests. [/QUOTE] I am more convinced of a simple explanation like this. People have had two hands for…er.. a fairly long time (even before elaborate Zulu or even proto-Zulu rituals) and it probably did not take long for some hairy guy a long time ago to slap both of his hands together to make noise to get someone’s attention or possibly even as an expression of excitement. Like **mangeorge** said, one of the things that a baby does when he gets excited is slap his hands together to make a noise. If a baby slaps things to make noise when excited without being taught, it is not that much of a stretch to say that this type of behavior could have been discovered a long time ago by early humans. Imagine one member of an early human hunting party kills an animal in a thrilling fashion. The other guys see it, are happy and excited, and start hooting or grunting, and start slapping their hands together. Not too much of a far fetched story is it? ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/13 "2008-04-25T07:01:59Z")
Well there’s a few explaining why we clap but not a one saying why we do it in appreciation which was my question ---
**Author:** ![ignis\_glaciesque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ignis\_glaciesque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignis_glaciesque)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/14 "2008-04-25T16:30:44Z")
I’ve seen chimpanzees clap. Maybe it was under human influence, but it’s still intriguing nonetheless. ---
**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:** [April 25, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/15 "2008-04-25T16:35:27Z")
My WAG is that it first started when people who were clapping along with the music didn’t want to stop clapping. FWIW, clapping isn’t particularly universal. In North Cameroon, that tongue thing that women in Arab countries do is more popular at traditional events. When people do clap, it’s usually a special rhythm that they are taught in elementry school. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/16 "2008-04-25T16:38:00Z")
[QUOTE=ignis\_glaciesque] I’ve seen chimpanzees clap. Maybe it was under human influence, but it’s still intriguing nonetheless. [/QUOTE] Chimpanzees, babies, same thing. Really, up to a point. ---
**Author:** ![Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Can\_Handle\_the\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Can_Handle_the_Truth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/17 "2008-04-25T20:28:18Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] Even though there aren’t any specific evidences of Roman navigators or traders having visited this region… [/QUOTE] You just made my point. Someone would be hard-pressed to prove that the Romans ever witnessed this Kl’rt custom. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/18 "2008-04-25T21:03:11Z")
ok ok … it was a yarn … sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2008, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-applaud/446718/19 "2008-04-25T21:32:39Z")
[QUOTE=Inigo Montoya] ok ok … it was a yarn … sheesh. [/QUOTE] Although searching for “kl’rt” on Wikipedia is entertaining…