Hand Rubbing

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    Hand Rubbing is the act of rubbing the palms of your hands together. The friction of the gesture can be used to provide heat in a cold environment, or it can simply convey excitation or expectation. The Other Wiki has a whole article on the subject, but here, we will focus on rubbing hands as a trope.

    There is an eerie specificity in fiction to reserve this gesture for Smug Snake type villains. Used car salesmen, lower-end corrupt corporate executives and the Dastardly Whiplash will gleefully rub their hands when things are going their way, but a true Magnificent Bastard always opts to clasp his hands instead. Even when otherwise positive characters do this, there's nearly always a sinister undercurrent.

    Examples of Hand Rubbing include:


    Comics

    Literature

    Magazines

    Phil: Do with it? Why -- I know exactly what we can do with it! Heh! Heh! Heh!

    Video Games

    • Dr. Fred, the Mad Scientist from Day of the Tentacle, has a sprite whose static animation consists of this.
      • Although in Fred's case, there's nothing particularly sinister about it-he's just jittery from the permanent caffeine high he submits himself to so as to avoid sleepwalking (by avoiding sleeping).
    • As depicted in the trope image, this is Frank Sahwit's default sprite in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney.

    Web Comics

    • Girl Genius - "...and suddenly the captain is rubbing his hands together and affirming that "We're not pirates. He didn't count."

    Western Animation

    • Mr. Burns does this on occasion in The Simpsons. Word of God is that this is supposed to be like a praying mantis.
    • 1973/74 Superfriends
      • Episode "The Androids". Dr. Rebos does this after he captures Superman using artificial kryptonite.
      • Episode "The Balloon People". Dr. Noah Tall does it when he thinks he's about to capture the title characters.
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