If you lived through the 1990s, especially as a teenager, you probably knew slang like “chillax,” “jiggy,” and the over-the-top “110 percent.” If you didn’t want to hear what someone was saying, you might have put your hand up and told them to “talk to the hand.” If you were really annoyed, you might have said, “Talk to the hand because the face doesn’t understand.”
It’s a rude but memorable way to dismiss someone you don’t want to talk to. But who started it?
It seems like it came from 1990s TV shows.
Did Martin invent the phrase talk to the hand?
One of the first times the term was used in public was on the TV show “Martin,” which aired from 1992 to 1997 on Fox. The show starred comedian Martin Lawrence as Martin Payne, a DJ from Detroit managing his personal and work life. In 2022, Ebony magazine said the show helped make the phrase popular, along with other sayings like “you go girl” and “you so crazy.” Martin’s co-star, Tisha Campbell, remembered the show using the term in a TV interview with Fox 5 in New York in 2023.
“When we saw people doing it on the street, we were worried someone might get hurt,” she said. “That’s not something you should do in real life.”
It’s hard to say if “Martin” influenced popular culture or if popular culture influenced “Martin.” Both the Oxford English Dictionary and Green’s Dictionary of Slang trace the term “talk to the hand” back to 1995. It was first recorded as part of a collection of campus slang gathered by linguist Connie Eble from students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since “Martin” was popular among young adults, it’s possible that the phrase moved from TV to college conversations or the other way around.
Was there something similar before? Maybe. Green’s Dictionary also mentions phrases like “talk to the engineer, not the oily rag” or “talk to the butcher, not the block,” used in the 1920s. These phrases suggested that you should talk to a supervisor, not a subordinate. While they have a similar rhythm, their meaning is different. “Talk to the hand” means not talking at all, while “talk to the engineer” means directing complaints to the right person.
In both situations, “talk to the hand” became a quick way to show disinterest, and it became popular on TV talk shows in the 1990s. In Joshua Gamson’s 1998 study on these shows, called “Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity,” he quotes a producer from a 1995 interview. The producer talked about how guests on their show would sometimes put their hand in front of another guest’s face and look away. This gesture was called “talk to the hand,” and it’s short for “talk to the hand because the face don’t understand.” The producer mentioned that this gesture didn’t start on talk shows but originated somewhere in urban life.
A Pop Culture Phenomenon
Martin and daytime talk shows weren’t the only TV shows that used “talk to the hand.” The Nanny, a show from 1993 to 1999, also used the phrase. Fran Drescher, who starred in The Nanny, also used it in her 1997 movie Beautician and the Beast. Two songs from the mid-’90s, “Talk to the Hand” by Buttergirl and “Talk to the Hand” by The Loomers, also used the phrase.
People started using variations of the phrase, which could change depending on where you were. Some variations include:
- Talk to the hand, because the hand doesn’t talk back
- Talk to the finger, because you’re not worth five
- Talk to the hand, because the face isn’t listening
- Talk to the elbow, because you’re not worth the extension
- Talk to the left, because you’re not right
The phrase was used in movies like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). In Terminator 3, the T-800 robot tries to fit in by using the phrase.
Could it become popular again? Maybe, especially if Fran Drescher’s Nanny musical or reboot happens.
