Who was the first person to give the finger? Who is the creator of the Superfinger?

Question

Yes Dane Cook invented the SuperFinger or SUFI, but who was the first person to give the finger?

Answer 1

Guess what I'm doing?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF "THE FINGER"

In the current film, Titanic, the character Rose is shown giving
the finger to her fiance's manservant (another character). Many
people who have seen the film question whether "giving the finger"
was really done around during the time of the Titanic disaster, or
if it is a more recent gesture invented by some defiant
seventh-grader.

And now you know the rest of the story... According to research,
here's the true story:

Giving the Finger - Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the
French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off
the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the
middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English
longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This
famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act
of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck
yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major
upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers
at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!
PLUCK YEW!"

Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this
symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say
(like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker," which is who you had to
go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), the
difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed
to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in
conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to
have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because
of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture
is known as "giving the bird."

And yew all thought yew knew everything!
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What's the origin of "the finger"?
04-Sep-1998


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Dear Cecil:

Can you confirm the following? It sounds rather fishy to me. --Adam Koford, Salt Lake City, Utah

[Adam attaches the following memo, which has been floating around the Internet for some time.]

Subject: Truth About the Finger

In the film Titanic the character Rose is shown giving the finger to Jack, another character. Many people who have seen the film question whether "giving the finger" was done around the time of the Titanic disaster, or was it a more recent gesture invented by some defiant seventh-grader. According to research, here's the true story:

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore [soldiers would] be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew." Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!"

Over the years some "folk etymologies" have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say, like "pheasant mother plucker," which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative "f," and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the gesture is known as "giving the bird."

And yew all thought yew knew everything!

Dear Adam:

Uh huh.

Now for the facts. The "one-finger salute," or at any rate sexual gestures involving the middle finger, are thousands of years old. In Gestures: Their Origins and Distribution, Desmond Morris and colleagues note that the digitus infamis or digitus impudicus (infamous or indecent finger) is mentioned several times in the literature of ancient Rome. Turning to our vast classical library, we quickly turn up three references. Two are from the epigrammatist Martial: "Laugh loudly, Sextillus, when someone calls you a queen and put your middle finger out."

(The verse continues: "But you are no sodomite nor fornicator either, Sextillus, nor is Vetustina's hot mouth your fancy." Martial, and Roman poets in general, could be pretty out there, subject-matter-wise. Another verse begins: "You love to be sodomized, Papylus . . .")

In the other reference Martial writes that a certain party "points a finger, an indecent one, at" some other people. The historian Suetonius, writing about Augustus Caesar, says the emperor "expelled [the entertainer] Pylades . . . because when a spectator started to hiss, he called the attention of the whole audience to him with an obscene movement of his middle finger." Morris also claims that the mad emperor Caligula, as an insult, would extend his middle finger for supplicants to kiss.

It's not known whether one displayed the digitus infamis in the same manner that we (well, you) flip the bird today. In another of his books Morris describes a variety of sexual insults involving the middle finger, such as the "middle-finger down prod," the "middle-finger erect," etc., all of which are different from the classic middle-finger jerk. But let's not quibble. The point is, the middle-finger/phallus equation goes back way before the Titanic, the Battle of Agincourt, or probably even that time Sextillus cut off Pylades with his chariot. And I ain't kidding yew.

--CECIL ADAMS

Answer 2

Dane cook Sufi, But the middle finger in from the old ages, where knights would taunt Archers by sticking up the firing finger, like they were going to cut it off.

Answer 3

Dane Cook invented the superfinger

Answer 4

I think the first finger was given by Adam as he and Eve were kicked out of the garden after eating the fruit in the middle of the, that was against the law at the time.

It is not sure who Adam was giving the finger to Eve or God, but as I understand it Adam was pissed about the part when God said man would have to work the rest of his life by the sweat of his brow.

The Super finger was to have been given by God as he looked back at Adam and his gesture. It was not clear if God was giving the Super finger or calling for Adam and Eve to come closer to him.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 5

I cant answer the first question but I can answer the second one. The creator of the Superfinger was....

DANE COOK!

Answer 6

the first person to give the finger was Nero of Rome. The super-finger was invented by Superman.

Answer 7

It was a salute.. or way of saying hello good day in British. Try it next time you visit there. Some people are not familiar with it.. in some areas, only the police are aware of it's true meaning. You might give them a try.

Answer 8

During a war between the British and the French, one side (I'm not sure which side) was capturing the other sides archers and cutting off their middle (string pulling) finger. As a sign of "I have my finger and I will pull my bow and arrow on you and kill you" they would extend their middle finger to the enemy during their battles.

Answer 9

The Neanderthals. They described the bird to Oug by hand jesters lol.

Answer 10

I think Thag gave the first finger to Grok when he was asked to feed Grok's baby t-rex.