This is something between a question and a shower thought. People use air quotes to stimulate "quoting" a word or short phrase in the middle of a sentence. Are there any other punctuation marks that can be stimulated this way? And in particular, is there a gesture for parentheses (like this)?

If not, then why not? How did quotes get special treatment?

And if yes - how many people would actually understand what those other gestures mean? (I am reminded of that scene from Friends where Joey admits he doesn't know what air quotes mean)

Image taken from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quotes / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airquotes.gif

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[–] 8 points 4 months ago*

This Victor Borge skit immediately came to my mind at the question.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n4MhcWImGkM

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