Gesticulation has become a key part of communication, be it on the street with the kids or in Parliament, particularly since the hey day of Tony Blair, he of the unending hand waving.
However, according to a new survey, use of hand gestures seems to annoy most of the population.
Gestures such as slicing your throat with your finger or giving the 80s high school 'talk to the hand' have been judged as the most irritating hand signals, with the top prize reserved for the classic 'air quotes' signs, in a new survey.
Call me never: Do you think this is the most irritating?
The survey found that other severely disliked gestures included pointing at your eye, as though to say 'I'm watching you' and tapping your nose as in 'It's a secret', as well as, curiously, fake yawning.
Conducted ahead of the release of the Goggle Eyes app, created by Ventutec, the survey asked 2,000 people which gestures they couldn't bear.
Or do you think this is worse?
A spokesman from the company said of the results: ‘Most of the more irritating gestures originated out of a need to communicate quickly and transcend language barriers – but it doesn’t take much for a gesture to seem cheesy or informal.
‘It’s about being able to recognise how to use gestures and for which audiences – sometimes they’re funny and entertaining but, often, they’re just annoying.’