Quenelle

Dieudonné M'bala M'bala

Quenelle link (Handsign)
File:Quennelle.jpg
Type	sign
Start	2005
Founder(s)	Dieudonné M'bala M'bala

The "quenelle" is a vulgar gesture roughly meaning “up yours”, with one hand placed at the top of the other arm stretched down to signify “how far up” this is to be. Using the name of a French dumpling, French Cameroonian comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala started using this gesture in a wholly different context in 2005, as an expression of defiance, incredulity or indifference.

French Origins

The word quenelle comes from an elongated fish meatballs dish, which is said to look like a suppository. Its originator, Dieudonné described it as "a kind of up yours gesture to the establishment with an in the ass dimension. But it's a quenelle, so it's a bit softer, less violent". The first time Dieudonné used the gesture in a political context was for his 2009 European election campaign poster for the "anti-Zionist party", he stated that his intention was "to put a quenelle into Zionism's butt".

Wider Use

Nicolas Anelka, a striker for the UK football team, West Bromwich Albion, made the gesture at Upton Park after scoring a goal. France's sports minister Valerie Fourneyron branded the sign "disgusting." Anelka said that he gave the gesture as a show of support for Dieudonné, and said the salute was "anti-establishment", rather than anti-Zionist.

File:Mbala-quenelle.jpg

French Comedian Dieudonné demonstrate the quenelle - a gesture which risks landing you with a prison sentence if made in public in France - or banishment from the team if made by an English footballer

Dieudonné explains the quenelle to Sky News which became interested in him and it following controversy over its use by the West Bromwich footballer Nicholas Anelka