At Toronto Life’s blog, John Michael McGrath has the best explanation of “Jazz Hands,” which will probably be a common sight at the next bunch of city council meetings:
This council meeting was probably the most uproariously crazy we’ve seen in a while. (And remember, council meetings already featured a prop toilet this year.) We got an early taste of who the crowd favoured when Adam Vaughan and Gord Perks walked in to cheers and applause. Clearly, Ford Nation was either not in attendance or they were caught in traffic behind a streetcar. After a few more rounds of cheering for the left and booing the right, Nunziata threatened to have the crowds ejected from council. As a compromise, Paula Fletcher suggested that people wave their hands in the air as a silent alternative—what The Globe and Mail’s Kelly Grant dubbed “jazz handsâ€â€”and, amazingly, it stuck. With only a few exceptions, for the rest of the night the benches used jazz hands instead of applause, and two-handed thumbs downs instead of booing.
Good photo too.