V-Sign

An ironic twist.^note He's still not a crook!

"V for victory, dot dot dot dash
Hitler lost his little mustache
If you find it, let him know
And he'll give you lots of dough"

Sometimes, a character, feeling victorious and all, just feels like yelling "VICTORY!", or busting a few moves. But for one reason or another, they want a less ostentatious method to celebrate. In that case, they stick their middle and index fingers upwards, as if forming the letter "V". Sometimes, they'll do it with some exclamation, but not necessarily.

In Japan, the V sign can also signify that the person making it is being photographed. This pops up in anime quite a bit, sometimes accompanied by the character saying "V". May have been popularized as a result of the occupation after WWII.

In the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, when done with the palm facing inward, it is an offensive gesture — slightly less offensive than Flipping the Bird in the United States — sometimes known as "throwing the deuces" or "[flipping/flicking] [off] Vs".

During World War II, Winston Churchill popularised its use as a "Victory" sign (for V as in victory) initially with palm inwards and later in the war (once informed that inward was offensive) palm outwards.

The palm-facing-outward version of the sign has also been used to mean "peace", especially by the 1960s/1970s counter-culture.

Contrary to popular belief, the "palm-inwards" version has nothing to do with medieval English and Welsh archers showing defiance. Maybe. Nobody really knows for sure, but it'd be cool if it was true.

A form of Crazy Cultural Comparison. Compare Victory Pose and Happy Dance, where someone wants to be a bit more showy with their celebration. For the single-finger version, see Flipping the Bird. Not to be confused with a certain OTHER two-fingered gesture, though the two look the same.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Ringo Seto in Angelic Layer gives this sign to Misaki before their match, and says "V!". After the match, they get a photograph of both of them taken while both giving the sign.
• Animal Crossing New Horizons Deserted Island Diaries: In Volume 1, in one scene, when the humans are commenting on how they aren't cut out for island life, the following panel shows them in action. In it, Guchan is sleeping on top of a giant turtle, with his Snot Bubble making a peace sign.
• The end credits of the first three parts of the Birdy the Mighty OVA series ended with the title character flashing this.
• Bleach: Ichigo Kurosaki does this when he sends a Menos back to Hueco Mundo after Uryu's little bait trick, complete with a yelled out "VICTORY!"
• Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan does this. Also, she seems to pronounce "V" as "vi" (rhymes with "eye") instead of "vee".
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura does this at the end of the second episode, after capturing the shadow card.
• Taken not as a hand gesture, but as a symbolic phrase in Combattler V. Usually used to get the spirit up.
  Believe in the sign of victory: V!
• V-mon from Digimon Adventure 02 is named for and vaguely themed around the V-sign, although he doesn't often make it. Shoutmon of Digimon Fusion also seems to be themed around it, especially in his later Xrossed forms.
• Used extensively in Akira Toriyama mangas, including Doctor Slump and Dragon Ball.
• Hilariously, the agents of AEGIS in Gate Keepers do the V-Sign with the palm inward (which is a rude gesture in the UK).
• In Hell Girl episode "Tragedy of V" when drunks make the V sign in the background of a news report about the deaths of a mother and son, the father hunts them down, kills them and leaves their hands in the V sign.
• Played with in Kinnikuman, where Kinnikuman utterly fails at making the V-sign after an important victory. How do you screw something like that up? Well, you see, Kinnikuman's such a loser he's never had a reason to do it before.
• Caro strikes this pose in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid after she and Corona managed to take down two members of the opposing team in a training battle. Then Nanoha shoots her down. "Complacency over a small victory is a big no-no on the battlefield~!"
• Yurika Misumaru from Martian Successor Nadesico practically debuts her day as a captain with this.
  Yurika: "I'm the captain of this ship, Yurika Misumaru! V!"
• Nena Trinity from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is prone of doing this almost all the time when she's in a good mood. She stops doing it for awhile after Ali killed her brothers, but in the second season, she did it again after screwing Wang's plan in a form of Take That!.
• Asuna of Negima! Magister Negi Magi, such as after she does a Big Damn Heroes moment for Negi in the climax of the Mahora Festival arc. Even back when she was an Emotionless Girl, she was shown doing this after demonstrating the Kanka technique to Takamichi.
• Ash of Pokémon: The Series sometimes does this when he catches a Pokémon. Pikachu uses it too, though he has short little toes instead of fingers.
• In Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! Hareta gave a V-Sign right after he beat Mitsumi.
• In the anime version of The Prince of Tennis, Kikumaru Eiji shows of his Keet-ness by doing about thirty of these in a row while jumping hyperactively around the room and posing for a camera.
• In Ranma ½, Gosunkugi (in the manga) or Sasuke (in the anime) followed Ranma taking pictures in an attempt to find a weakness; once developed, Ranma is shown with the V sign at the camera, implying that Ranma knew he was being stalked.
• Sailor Moon examples:
  • Minako is the primary user, both in her solo series under the identity of Sailor V and later as Sailor Venus. As her character is partially inspired by the 1968 volley manga Our Sign Is V, she's likely to use it in the "Victory" sense.
  • As Sailor V's number one fan, Usagi as Sailor Moon uses it too, often holding her hand horizontally across her face and looking through the V with her eye.
• Smile Pretty Cure!: Cure Peace frequently makes this sign throughout the series as a Character Tic. Her Evil Knockoff, Bad End Cure Peace, makes this sign once right after Trolling her.
• Strawberry Marshmallow: When Miu sees it on TV, she wonders why kids always "do that finger thing every time they're in front of a camera". Nobue replies that they're "probably trying to get some attention". When she shows Miu a picture she took on her camera in which Miu herself is doing "that finger thing", Miu doesn't understand what Nobue is pointing out.
• Yuuki Konno of Sword Art Online fame uses this as her signature Victory Pose.
• Tiger Mask's title character starts making it often after developing his third Finishing Move, the Tiger V. He even calls it his sign when, during a match, his opponent commits a foul by forcing open his fingers, and follows up with this by quickly beating him into submission.
• Trigun: Vash the Stampede is the poster guy of this trope in anime. He gives out the V-sign in addition to his hammy line: THIS WORLD IS MADE OF, LOVE AND PEACE!! It's a weird inverted version. He uses the same fingers, but crosses them. Presumably it is nonetheless of similar meaning.
• Ataru in Urusei Yatsura accidentally summons a demon called "Velial" (or Belial) by giving the V sign after winning a tennis match against Mendou. (In the Japanese version of the manga, Ataru even says "V sign" when he does this.)

Asian Animation

• Boonie Bears: Tiki briefly gives one to the "camera" in Season 2 episode 12 after his part of the plan to stop Logger Vick and save Bramble, which involves using a large net in the road to block his truck, works.

Comic Books

• In Asterix in Britain Notax makes the V-sign after the Britons defeat the Romans alongside Asterix and Obelix.
• In Mark Millar's first arc on The Authority, the Engineer flashes the palm-inward version as an Expy of The Incredible Hulk explodes in space.
• In Warren Ellis' Crécy the main character is an archer who does this at the end of the book. This refers to the Urban Legend that the offensive V-sign came from the French cutting off the fingers of captured English longbowmen.
• In an issue of The Invaders, a Marvel Universe Retcon World War II Comic Book, a character's hand doing this is The Reveal that he's Sir Winston Churchill. Except that we (and the other characters) are seeing him from behind, so...
• Very frequent in Peter Kuper's Spy vs. Spy comics: many times, when one of the spies is killed, the other flashes the V while laughing and triggering the death trap.
• Inverted in V for Vendetta. The title says it all, but more specifically, the mockery of "V for Victory" is an underlying theme.

Fan Works

• A Certain Droll Hivemind: On Yui's first day of school, her flatmate Abe Eiko gives her the V-sign when she's introducing herself to the class. Yui initially assumes that it is a gesture of encouragement, before one of her Sisters in London informs her that it might be an insult. Yui is, once again, annoyed at society for being confusing and unclear.
  Yui: I will refrain from making that gesture back at her until I have clarified what she meant by it. If only she had accompanied it with sign language, to say, for example, "'V', gestures Abe Eiko insultingly". It seems even sign language and gestures are not proof to the inefficiencies of inferior forms of dialogue.
• Everyday Craziness in Pontypandy: In "Valentine's Daze", one of the college girls does V signs while posing next to Jupiter.
• Haruhi and Sakanaka to each other in Kyon: Big Damn Hero as a symbol of victory, after Kyon and Haruhi return from a Student Council session discussing the fight between Kyon and Ryuugu Ryo earlier that day (Kyon acted in defense of a schoolmate). They decided not punishing nor rewarding Kyon for that.
• A Mother's Touch: Yoko flashes a sign for Reiji when she asks him how much Reiji would pay for her son's cards. It also takes note on how she's doing the palm inward version ala Judai Yuki, but also because she's flipping him off for his apathy.

Films — Animation

• In Turning Red, Robaire and Auntie Ping do this for the picture seen at the end of the movie.

Films — Live-Action

• In Are You Being Served?, Mr. Grainger uses the insulting variant on some annoying Germans.
• In Dad's Army (1971), a woman gives one of celebration to Captain Mainwaring after his and his men's heroics stopped the Nazis who took over the church hall.
• Doctor... Series:
  • In Doctor in Love, after Dr. Mincing hangs up the phone he was using, Sir Lancelot flicks him a subtle one while still holding the receiver.
  • In Doctor in Trouble, a livid Dr. Burke flicks one at Basil as he leaves his private hospital room.
• On the poster for the film Victory◊ (a.k.a. Escape to Victory) Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, and Pelé jointly make the "V" sign with their bodies. It's also used at the end of the film.
• In Forrest Gump, Jenny gives it to Forrest before he leaves for Vietnam.
• The logo used by the back-in-business Ghostbusters in Ghostbusters II has the ghost making a "V" sign, which serves the dual purpose of being a Take That! to the authorities that shut them down and denoting that it is the second movie in the franchise.
• In Hellboy II: The Golden Army, one of the confiscated pictures Manning has of Hellboy is of him flashing the V Sign at the camera. He presents it with an exasperated "He posed for this one."
• In Holiday on the Buses, when Blakey tells off Bert for forgetting to give Mrs. Butler a salute during his dancing lessons, Bert mocks him and says he'll give him one now to show he's sorry, before sticking two fingers up at him. Wally copies him, much to Lill's annoyance.
• Tony Stark from Iron Man does this a number of times, probably in memory of the soldier who asked for a photo in the Humvee.
• Used in the poster image for the film M*A*S*H.
• In Independence Day, Captain Steven Hiller flashes the V Sign before firing a nuke to destroy the alien mothership. He also gets a Pre-Mortem One-Liner: "PEACE!"
• Kate. As they travel in a taxi together to what is supposed to be Kate's final hit, an exhausted Kate falls asleep with her head on Ani's shoulder. Ani has become rather enamored of this mysterious Action Girl, and takes a selfie of them while giving a V sign.
• Past Lives: The Korean Hae Sung peace-signs with both hands while Nora takes a picture of him on the Ellis Island ferry in the trailer.
• Up Pompeii films:
  • Up Pompeii:
    • The tour guide ends his tour with one.
    • Cartoon versions feature prominently in the trailer, most notably replacing the "U" in the film's title.
  • The end credits of Up the Front start with Winston Churchill giving one.
• Watch Your Stern, when Chief Mundy calls Blissworth (disguised as Miss Potter) an "old boiler" behind his back, Blissworth overhears and shoots a V behind his head, much to the bemusement of Chief Mundy and the other sailors.

Literature

• Adrian Mole gives the vicious Alsatian dog Sabre the V-sign through a window, and hopes he doesn't remember. A coach driver also demands pupils stop giving V-signs to lorry drivers.
• Discworld: The character Didactylos in Small Gods refers both to the offensive version of the V sign ("two fingers") and to the word "didactic". (Ephebe is a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of classical Athens.)
• Ron Weasley from Harry Potter is heavily implied to do the rude version in one scene, as his mother threatens to jinx his fingers together if she sees it again.
• Likewise Chas in The Machine Gunners gives the reverse of Winston Churchill's famous gesture to a low-flying German bomber.

Live-Action TV

• Blackadder: A Blackadder◊ met Winston Churchill whilst he was doing this. He took it wrong.
• The Big Bang Theory: In the episode where Howard gets into an embarrassing situation with a robot arm, he programs the arm to respond to a snarky Sheldon comment, by having it turn to him and jerkily, but very obviously, making a finger-gesture. Sheldon asks if he means "Peace". Howard's reaction suggests he was aiming for something else (the controls aren't great).
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike does the palm-inward version and the WB censors not only let it through, they let it on the opening credits after that.
• Doctor Who: The Doctor does this in "Victory of the Daleks" while en route to meeting Churchill himself.
• Early in its run, EastEnders managed to achieve notoriety after ending an episode on the palm-back variety.
• In the Farscape episode "Look at the Princess", Crichton mimics the Nixon double-peace sign before he is about to be turned into a living statue to commemorate his marriage into a royal family. Unfortunately, the process turns out to be so painful he can't hold the pose and his "statue" has him doubled over in agony instead.
• Foyle's War. Samantha Stewart feels she's not doing enough for the war effort and helps out with the harvest. She's not used to being bent over all the time to pick stuff off the ground, and at one point does a full-arm version of this trope to stretch while jokingly saying, "V for Victory!"
• The Goodies create a Winston Churchill robot, who is seen in a newsreel giving the "Up Yours" sign to the troops before Graeme quickly turns his hand around.
• In one early episode of How I Met Your Mother, a suit asked young Barney Stinson to high five. Barney replies he only gives high two's, and shows him this V gesture.
• The skutter (maintenance robot) in Red Dwarf makes a similar derisive gesture to Arnold Rimmer after being provoked by a similar superior sneer. The books lampshade that their three-fingered claw seems to have been specifically designed for this.
• At the end of the Square One TV sketch "The Mathematics of Love", Tony tells his band to "take five" while making this sign.^note The sketch is about Roman numerals, thus the "V" has at least a double meaning: victory in successfully singing the song even though every number is written in Roman numerals and he didn't know them when he started, and V meaning 5, the number of minutes they should take a break for.
• Super Sentai:
  • Rescue Sentai GoGoFive had a V logo in a lot of places. Of course, it's hard to know if V means victory or roman numeral 5 (possibly both... in which case the name means Five Five Five. Which is Japan's 911, befitting the Rescue theme and making it possibly the most multi-layered sentai name pun ever.)
  • In Mahou Sentai Magiranger/Power Rangers Mystic Force, the Pink Ranger's V-sign becomes a plot point (showing the others that she's only pretending to still be brainwashed. In the sentai version she continues to flash the sign every so often, while her power rangers counterpart drops it.) Perhaps due to the prevalence of the Five-Man Band, the V sign shows up in many series of both versions.
• In The Thick of It Malcolm flicks the offensive version to the journalists who gather outside his house after his sacking. He flicks another naughty V at Olly for not answering his phone.
• The miniseries V was named after this trope. The oldest Bernstein family member, a Holocaust survivor, teaches some kids in the streets the meaning and sprays the Visitors' propaganda posters with the symbol.
• The X Factor judge Louis Walsh got into trouble for flicking a V at the audience during one of the live finals.

Manhwa

• Chris in Demon Diary strikes this pose several times... after being pummeled into the dirt, causing Erutis to question, "Victory? On whose planet!?"

Music

• Used ironically on the cover of Accept's Blood of the Nations◊ album.

Pro Wrestling

• Jeff Jarrett throws up the V-Sign with both hands at the end of his version of the Fargo Strut.
• This was pretty much the justification behind Nelson Frazier, Jr.'s gimmick when he became Big Daddy V (the "V" stood for "Victory," although it had originally stood for "Viscera").

Sports

• The palm-in version was the favourite gesture of permanently disgruntled showjumper Harvey Smith when meeting the press after a bad performance. The professional Yorkshireman was so associated with the two-fingered "go away, I don't want to be interviewed right now" gesture that for a while it was even called the Harvey Smith, or just the Harvey, in his honour.

Tabletop Games

• Yu-Gi-Oh!: "Worm Victory" is giving the "V for Victory" with all six of its hands in its card artwork.It even does this when it's a part of Evilswarm Az(z)athoth.

Video Games

• In Wild ARMs 2, after beating the boss in her prologue, Lilka Eleniak strikes this pose.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Every time Mario gets a star in Super Mario 64, or completes a level in Super Mario World.
  • It was also added into the Super Mario All-Stars versions of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels whenever Mario completes a level or goes down pipes. Heck, the V-Sign is one of Mario's trademarks - Although Shigeru Miyamoto excised it from the series in the GameCube era to make Mario tougher. Mario has since stopped flashing the V sign but curiously, his brother Luigi has continued giving the gesture in later games. For example, whenever he gets a key in Luigi's Mansion or as one of his taunts in Super Smash Bros. Brawl◊ and onwards.◊
  • After nearly two decades of disuse, the V-Sign is brought back in Super Mario Odyssey as a reference to Super Mario 64, where it's one of 3 possible hand gestures Mario does when he collects a Power Moon.
  • Super Mario RPG: Mario, Mallow, and Toadstool get one of these as their victory pose after a battle (Bowser clenches his fists in the English version or does a Bicep-Polishing Gesture in the Japanese version, while Geno crosses his arms and nods).
  • The PETA parody Super Tanooki Skin 2D has the titular Tanooki doing this in the ending for an ironic effect.
  • Wario typically has his own versions; he holds up two Vs, overlapping them to make "W", or (as in the Super Smash Bros. series) he holds up three fingers, again, to represent "W".
• EarthBound (1994): Ness does it whenever he gets his picture taken by the Recurring Traveler photographer. Assuming he's alive, that is.
• Street Fighter series:
  • This is Chun-Li's Victory Pose in the "YATTA!"
  • Cammy is making this gesture in the iconic poster of her.
• The box art of Left 4 Dead 2 has the palm-inward version; predictably, the UK version has a outward hand instead.
• Kid Ryu does this when catching a fish in Breath of Fire III.
• In Pokémon Sun and Moon, pleasing Pyukumuku in Pokémon Refresh causes it to spew it innards in with two of its fingers up.
• "V for peace" - the irony of the 'V for Victory' also representing 'peace' - is a recurring Motif in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. So is the palm-inward version, which is used symbolically by the villains and by Snake when he decides to abandon his old ideals. The characters do just about everything the gesture can mean - holding it up to represent the two things required for nuclear deterrence, transforming the singular pointing finger (pressing the nuclear button) into the peace sign, even 'walking' two fingers along a surface to represent legs...
• The boss Kunino-sagiri in Persona 4 weaponizes the peace sign. His physical attack involves thrusting out his hand in this pose, and he flashes twin peace signs when he uses his "Unerring Justice" attack. He also has a halo that consists of several Y-shaped peace signs. Kunino-sagiri is the Shadow of Taro Namatame, who has developed a messiah complex after spending the game abducting people and hurling them into the TV world under the mistaken belief that he's rescuing them from a serial killer.
• Persona 5: Party member Ann will pop a peace sign as part of her splash screen Victory Pose.
• In Mirror's Edge, Faith can do the offensive version. There's an achievement for doing it in front of an enemy.
• Cream does this in Sonic Advance 3.
• Pit flashes one after defeating the Big Bad in Kid Icarus: Uprising.
• Brütal Legend features the flip-off version being used by the Killmaster and the Guardian of Metal. Justified, since they are based on (and played by) real people who have been known to do the same thing from time to time.
• Lollipop Chainsaw has the boss Marishka, who's effectively the zombie embodiment of the 1960s. As such, she really likes making these.
• An animated cutscene in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood has Richter Belmont giving a peace sign while telling his name and occupation to one of the rescued captive maidens.
• The eponymous character of Rayman Origins and its sequel is fond of these, using one as part of his Big Entrance on each level.
• In Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, Veemon does this as its Victory Pose after winning a battle.
• The ending of Super Robot Wars BX has Yuki giving the player this following the credits.
• This appears to be King Dedede's signature logo in the Kirby series, seeing as his back robe has a V sign, and the earlier games (particularly Kirby's Dream Land) shows portraits of him doing just this.
• In Battle Chef Brigade, Mina Han punctuates each victory with a cheerful peace sign.
• In the Puyo Puyo series, Amitie's victory poses have her making the peace sign.
• In JumpJet Rex, Rex does it upon completing a level.
• In Dodge The Prank, the girl does this after beating each level against her prankster.
• In Joe & Mac, the titular Caveman Ninja make a V-sign after clearing a stage.

Visual Novels

• Lily from Daughter for Dessert has a habit of doing this.

Web Animation

• In the Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse episode "Mall Mayhem", a female extra does this while walking in on Barbie recording a Confession Cam segment.
• Mystery Skulls Animated:
  • In "Freaking Out", Belle can be seen giving the camera a cheerful v sign on the photo set as Arthur's laptop background.
  • In "The Future", the true picture in Lewis' locket shows Arthur giving dual peace signs to the camera.

Webcomics

• This installment of Friday 4 Koma plays with the double meaning of the palm-facing-outward V sign.
• In Chimneyspeak, Elgie gives the palm-inward version to Chelsea when she invites him to come with her on her quest to overthrow England's rulers.
• Nightvee: MKR is shown doing one on the first issue cover.
• Erfworld: As he flees Gobwin Knob, Stanley flashes the Nixon-style double-V.
• Sleepless Domain: Tessa does this pose in the group selfie of Team Alchemical from before they became Magical Girls.
  • Undine is also doing this pose in the publicity photo used by a news programme. Presumably the rest of her teammates are posing with her, but the programme has rather conspicuously cropped them out — evidently, they didn't have a solo picture of Undine on hand.

Web Original

• The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: Warren forms a V sign in episode "Hijacked" (ep. 21) when he takes Jane's camera and shoots an impromptu video with Blanche. He pretends to snap a selfie.

Western Animation

• Commonly used at the end of Wartime Cartoons. Often accompanied by the opening phrase of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which was used to represent V in Morse code (dot-dot-dot-dash).
• Starfire of Teen Titans does this once.
• Parodied in an episode of Total Drama Action, where Izzy does the V sign...before she gets eliminated the second time.
• The Venture Brothers tend to do this at inappropriate moments whilst shouting, "Go team Venture!"
• Totally Spies! Done in the intro as well as on the show sometimes.
• Team Galaxy Yoko does this in one episode after blowing up some spacecraft.
• Family Guy has Peter parody the Nixon exit (see Real Life) after he resigns from his position as school board president in "Running Mates".

Real Life

• Apparently, Sir Winston Churchill did do it the wrong way around initially, until someone told him what it meant to the working classes. In fact he did it both ways round, arbitrarily at different times. It's been suggested that he knew what it meant, and had Hitler in mind when he made the gesture...
• Richard Nixon, as seen in the picture above. Oddly used in that he did so after resigning from the Presidency rather than face impeachment due to Watergate.
• George H. W. Bush faced his hand the wrong way doing this while on a state visit to Australia during his presidency.
• The overuse of the victory gesture (and, somehow, Vangelis' Conquest of Paradise) by the guys who took power in Madagascar in 2009 has led to massive contentions - do it in front of the right people and you'll be smiled at. Do it in front of the wrong people and you'll eat knuckle sandwich (if lucky).
• Ringo Starr is fond of the V-sign.
• This pose is so popular in Japan it's been suggested (in jest) that Japanese women have a genetic predisposition to striking this pose if a camera is pointed at them. In what's probably a Hype Backlash, a Memetic Mutation combines this with Ahegao,^note said to be the facial expression of someone who is being fucked silly, thus associating the pose itself with sluttiness.
• Baroness Trumpington showed exactly how much she appreciated being described as looking old in the House of Lords.
• British royals, notably Princess Anne, have made this gesture to press photographers perceived as getting too close and intrusive.
• Frequently utilized as a greeting by Quentin Tarantino when doing interviews or appearing at awards show functions.
• During the presidential elections of Mexico in the year 2000, then-candidate Vicente Fox made the V sign his trademark gesture, not only flashing it himself, but also depicting it on his political posters.

---