How common is the high five outside of North America?

December 18, 2022 6:29 AM

If you're outside of North America, is a high five something you would expect the average person to recognize? (Slapping your palms together, usually either high in the air or at handshake level, with many variations and sometimes accompanying phrases, as a friendly gesture of congratulations or greeting.) Any idea where you first learned it?

This is a very silly question. But, I just gave a high five to a five year old in an elevator and realized how incredibly weird it is that a random cultural artifact from my childhood is immediately recognized by young kids many decades and thousands of km away.

posted by eotvos to Society & Culture (14 answers total)

Here in the UK: very common, although your basic exuberant "up high" isn't cool and is generally only a thing in sports teams, a bit like white socks. But slapping hands? Yeah, been a thing at least since I was a kid in the 80s, although it is (or at least was back then) associated with being an American import.
posted by underclocked at 6:42 AM on December 18, 2022

People here in the Netherlands will recognise it, and most would use it themselves. We've learned it from watching movies and TV series.

There is a gesture similar to the 'down low', where first one person slaps the others hand and then the same happens in reverse, which is an old way of sealing a deal. It's still used on cattle markets today, I think.
posted by Too-Ticky at 8:10 AM on December 18, 2022

At least somewhat known in Italy where it's called batti cinque / batti il cinque* and in Japan where it's called high touch.

Seconding that it's common in the UK.

*(Sorry if the spelling is wrong, I heard an Italian friend said it to her child and had to try to figure it out.)
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 8:38 AM on December 18, 2022

South Africa: well known.
posted by Zumbador at 8:44 AM on December 18, 2022

Happens a bit in NZ but it always feels, forced, contrived, at least to me. We're generally a bit suspicious of American things and culture.
posted by unearthed at 10:41 AM on December 18, 2022

We’ve all been double high fiving goals in the World Cup in Paris.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:47 AM on December 18, 2022

Expat British friends here in the US are all slightly horrified by the thought of "high fiving" but they know what it is.

PS: high fives were invented by Oakland baseball player Glenn Burke, who also happened to be the first out player in the MLB .
posted by oneirodynia at 11:26 AM on December 18, 2022

In my context (NZ), high fives to/from toddlers are encouraged and common. I cannot remember the last time I high-fived another adult, though; that sounds a bit weird.
posted by Paragon at 5:08 PM on December 18, 2022

Australia - in the context of "you don't have to hug a relative if you don't want to" body autonomy plus "you still need to be polite and do a greeting" for our kids, we offer hugs or high fives.
posted by freethefeet at 5:30 PM on December 18, 2022

Was quite common growing up in South India.
posted by peacheater at 5:56 PM on December 18, 2022

In Ireland I think we learned it as part of a joke on kids

*palm facing up* Gimme Five!
*traditional high five position* Up High!
*same position as first action but lower* Down Low!
*pulls hand away before contact* Too Slow!

Later would have learned that it is a real thing people do from American movies
posted by TwoWordReview at 11:17 AM on December 19, 2022

Fascinating. Thanks, all! I really appreciate the responses.

I cannot remember the last time I high-fived another adult, though; that sounds a bit weird.

Among my friend group, you first have to shout "High Five City," which I think is a very local thing and now used with irony.
posted by eotvos at 3:26 PM on December 19, 2022

*pulls hand away before contact* Too Slow!

Definitely a thing that actually happened in US elementary schools in the 1980s. Thanks!
posted by eotvos at 3:32 PM on December 19, 2022

I learned it as "Too slow, Joe," as a kid in Scandinavia -- but at an international school, so who knows where it came from.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:13 PM on December 25, 2022