50 Hilarious Sign Language Gestures 

1. In New Zealand Sign Language, the sign for ‘stalker’ literally looks like one finger is stalking another. Hold up both index fingers and creep one towards the other.

The sign for ‘married’ is putting a ring on, and ‘divorce’ is pulling the ring back off and throwing it on the ground.

2. The old ASL sign for Texas was literally waving finger guns. That was updated recently…

Also, Ireland translates as POTATO + ISLAND.

3. The sign for Shakespeare is the sign for spear (a hand, elevated, holding the imaginary shaft of a spear), then vigorously shaken.

4. My favorite is Microwave!

Take your pinky and flex it up and down…..

It’s a micro wave! So cute!

5. My favorite sign is the sign for “Ghost.”

To sign “soul,” you hold one hand out in front of you, pinch that hand with your other hand and move it up. Like your pulling a soul out a body. For “ghost,” you just wiggle the hand as you move it up. Spoooopy.

6. The sign for snail is made by making a v with your fingers, then curling into little antennae shape – verrrryyy slowwwlyyy drag across your other forearm like a snail.

7. Coke (as in Cola)

Place your index finger of your dominant hands into the pit of the elbow on your non-dominant arm, with your three fingers curled and your thumb out. Then move your thumb to your index finger a couple times.

It looks like you’re jamming a needle in your arm.

8. My favorite is popcorn

You but two fists up and alternate flicking your pointer fingers up as if the kernels are popping!

9. Step-family terms (stepson, stepmother, etc) are all the regular words with the sign FAKE in front. I find that hilarious (if a bit insulting).

10. ‘I’ve got no idea / I’m really confused’ is mouthing ‘POWWW’ and shooting your index fingers back over your head (literally meaning that the information has gone over your head).

11. Sears. The letter S over each ear. ‘S’ears

12. Put your fist around your thumb and pull your thumb out as if it’s pooping.

You can guess what that is.

13. On one hand, do the sign for the letter “O”, and the other hand, the letter “L”.

Keeping the letter sign, position your “L” hand behind the “O” then move the L past the O, like how a speeding car pass another.

You’ve successfully signed “El Paso”! (“L” “pass” “O”).

14. Bible is signed as “Jesus” + “book”. Maybe it’s just me, but that always cracks me up.

15. I found it absolutely hilarious that the sign for “Colorado” is simply the sign for “color” followed by fingerspelling A-D-O. Efficient!

16. In Texas, the sign for “El Paso” is one hand making the sign for L and one hand making the sign for O and then frantically waving them past each other.

“L pass O”

17. Maybe this doesn’t count, but the sign for lame (as in, can’t walk) is taking two fingers and stand them up on your other hand. Kind of like when you take two fingers and walk them like they’re legs? Well you stand them up on your other hand and them have them fall forward and lay on your palm.

So basically it’s a stick person falling over.

18. Make a C on one side of your head level to eyes and quickly make O O for each eye and end with L on the other side of your head for Cool!

19. The sign for “stand” is a flat palm with one hand and using the first two fingers of the other hand (as if a little walking man) to stand on the flat surface. So after learning this, we would turn the same symbol upside-down for “understand”.

20. ‘Dog’ is snapping your fingers because the letters ‘d’, ‘o’ and ‘g’ make that motion if you were to slow it down. I love it.

21. The sign for Facebook is just the sign of ‘book’ on your face. Like you’re opening your face.

22. I really like lullaby – you cradle one arm and rock an “L” to sleep.

Curious is pinching your neck with a curious look on your face.

23. The sign for lesbian in Auslan is your fingers in an L-shape against your chin. It looks like a vagina pressed against your mouth. Usually a bit awkward, so I prefer to use the sign for gay.

24. The one I’m surprised not to see here yet: RULE OF THUMB – the sign for rule, but instead of signing RULE on the open palm, it’s miniaturized onto just the extended thumb.

25. In Auslan (Australian Sign Language) the sign for God is the letter “G” + BOSS. Always cracks me up.

26. To sign “IHOP” (as in the restaurant), you make an “I” with your dominant hand (make a fist, stick your pinky out), turn it upside down, then bounce it onto your dominant hand.

I hop.

27. A bit of information for those who don’t know ASL, the sign for a ‘car’ is to form the letter C with the hands, hold them as if you’re holding a steering wheel at 10 and 2, and move them like you’re driving.

The sign for ‘truck’ is the same except the hands form the letter T.

28. Norwegian. The sign for abortion is a open spread hand to the stomach then basically rip that sucker out

29. The sign for chocolate is pretty cool in my opinion, you do the same sign you would do fur church but then spin your hand. I would teach people and say “because chocolate is heavenly”

30. So to my knowledge, the sign for turtle is a fist with the other hand on top (akin to paper covering rock in Rock Paper Scissors) to resemble a turtle.

Snapping with the fist hand means snapping turtle.

31. The sign for the Fenway neighborhood in Boston is just the sign for “baseball”.

32. The sign for opening a dresser drawer is done by doing it as though you are opening the top drawer.

If you do it as though you are opening a middle or lower drawer, you’re having sex.

33. I’m taking ASL in college right now, my professor is actually deaf! My favorite sign is one of the signs for Walmart because it feels like a gang sign, but in reality it’s just good ol’ Walmart. You basically stick your ring, middle, and index fingers up making a W, tap your index finger on your chin, then pound your chest twice with a fist.

34. The sign for “Anthropology” looks a lot like the sign for “I don’t know”.

There’s a joke that the sign originated when one deaf person asked another “what’s the sign for Anthropology,” to which the other replied “I don’t know.”

35. Coke is made by making an x-shape on your upper arm, as if you’re shooting up.

36. I think Ohio is making the sign for o and raising it, o high o.

37. When initially learning ASL, I meant to sign that I was going to work. Instead I indicated I was going to go bang my girlfriend from behind. The signs are surprisingly similar.

Work is holding one fist above the other and tapping down, wrist-to-wrist. Doggy style is the same but twisted 15 degrees with a little oomph.

38. One that struck me is the word for Holocaust. It’s the sign for Jewish and then the sign for destruction.

39. If you’re signing the word long you slide your index finger over the back of your hand but if you’re being funny you can keep sliding it all the way up your arm and around your neck and down your leg.

40. In New Zealand sign language, ‘Thank you’ is the motion of touching the tip of your fingers to your chin then moving your hand forwards and down so your palm is facing upwards. In similar comparison, ‘F*** you’ is the same movement but instead of touching your chin with your fingers, you brush them under your chin. Very easy to get these two mixed up!

41. One I know if golf, it’s hard to explain in words but start with G on your right hand as the “club” left hand becomes O and is the “ball” turn the G into an L and hit the O and the O flies into the hole and becomes the F.

42. I took a sign language class once and the instructors for fun showed us some slang signs for things, one was for Toronto. It was supposed to look like the CN tower next to the Rogers centre. It was an arm up giving the finger with the other arm crossing the elbow making a fist next to it.

43. In Japanese sign language, to say older brother, you essentially stick up your middle finger as if flipping someone off, and raise it upwards. Younger brother is the same, only down. To say siblings, it’s both combined, one on each hand, and it looks like you’re aggressively giving someone the bird.

44. Sign for a nosey person: Classifier: c shape away from the nose (like showing how Pinnochio’s nose grows when he lies).

Point to the nosey person.

Follow the movement of their nose with the hand you used to classify the sign.

Means their nose is all up in your business.

45. Sign milkshake by making a fist away from your body, and move your wrist up and down.

Sign masterbate by making a fist towards your body, and move your wrist up and down.

46. Sign milk over and over and move it passed your eyes. Pasteurized milk.

47. Baby = Cradling in your arms back and forth. Garbage = Pretending to pick something out and nonchalantly throw it out.

Combine to make abortion.

48. My hard of hearing partner informed me that stroking your neck to chest means you’re hungry. However, doing it more than once means you’re horny. So when I do it, she asks if I meant I’m really hungry or if I’m horny. The correct answer is yes.

49. I am not sure if this is a conventional sign but my grandmother signs Starbucks by making a fist and doing circles on the inside of her elbow. She does this because the sign for coffee is two fists one above the other doing opposing concentric circles like you are grinding coffee and the sign for drugs is making a fist and pounding the inside of your elbow like you are shooting up. She combines the two because she says she’s addicted to Starbucks.

50. The “joke” sign for UNDERWEAR: it’s the sign for WHERE signed in the same location as the dominant hand in the sign for UNDER.

Another one is signing YELLOW and then the sign/classifier for FLOOD going up your face to your eye. It means you have to pee really badly.