Fist Bump - History

History

According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz, the fist bump was created by baseball player Stan Musial. Time magazine wonders if it evolved from the handshake and the high-five. They cite knuckle bumping in the 1970s with basketball player Baltimore Bullets guard Fred Carter. Others claim the Wonder Twins, minor characters in the 1970s Hanna-Barbera superhero FISH cartoon Super Friends, who touched knuckles and cried "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" were the originators. However, the "fist bump" or "pound" can easily be traced as far back as the late 1800s and early 1900s to the boxer's handshake as a way to greet when hands are gloved. In fact, the fist bump's origins may well lie in the animal kingdom as the gesture is natural behaviour observed in primates, according to a book published by Margaret Power in 1991.

On June 3, 2008, Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama fist bumped during a televised presidential campaign speech in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the gesture became known as "the fist bump heard 'round the world". Fox News host E. D. Hill paraphrased an anonymous internet comment in asking whether the gesture was a "terrorist fist jab", after which her contract was not renewed.

In light of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the dean of medicine at the University of Calgary, Tomas Feasby, suggested that the fist bump may be a "nice replacement of the handshake" in an effort to prevent transmission of the virus.