The Five Best Slow Claps of All Time

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Seriously Random Lists | Comments (35)

From what I hear out on the interwebs, the Jennifer Aniston / Aaron Eckhart movie, Love Happens, which comes out tomorrow, features a slow clap. A slow clap, people! That’s some real 1989 shit right there, folks.

It may be the only think I’m looking forward to about Love Happens. So, in honor of that grand moment, I thought I’d take a look back at the five best slow claps of all time.

5. Mystery, Alaska

4. Can’t Buy Me Love

3. Lucas

2. Cool Runnings

1. Not Another Teen Movie

(Hat Tips: Justin, DeistBrawler, and branded)

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Comments

Good call on #1.

Posted by: admin at September 17, 2009 11:47 AM

Seeing Not Another Teen Movie on the list made me yell out "BUT SHE'S GOT GLASSES AND A PONYTAIL", startling my cube mate and making him spill coffee on his keyboard. :)

Good times!

Posted by: wooky at September 17, 2009 11:51 AM

No. 2 reminds me of why the Olympics fucking suck now, because there's no place anymore for actual amateurs, no Jamaican bobsledders, no Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, no 1980 U.S. hockey team getting in the way while the $20,000,000/year professionals all try to score yet another bauble to add to the collection in the 5,000-square-foot trophy room built on the side of the 50,000-square-foot mansion.

That, and the bribery and corruption and crawling into bed with thugs and dictators in nations like China, and the billions of dollars that get wasted and the thousands of poor human beings displaced on building venues that will never be used again, and the fact the Games are a two-week commercial sprinkled with bits of sports and invented controversy and manufactured melodrama.

Fuck the Olympics.

You all may begin your slow clap now.

Posted by: , (TCFKAB) at September 17, 2009 12:00 PM

Best slow clap is the big finale at the end of Strictly Ballroom. So good.

Posted by: E at September 17, 2009 12:03 PM

I always associated the slow clap with sarcastic clapping.

Posted by: pausner at September 17, 2009 12:08 PM

Agreed, it's not as big a cliche as the villain climax line "you just don't get it, do you", but the sarcastic slow clap definitely needs a list.

Posted by: laredo at September 17, 2009 12:13 PM

I thought for sure the sarcastic clapping family was going to be on the list.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWc-8E3zec0

Posted by: Eep at September 17, 2009 12:16 PM

That Ronald Miller speech is truly inspiring. It deserves the slow clap.

I have a soft spot for Cool Runnings too.

The ending of Lucas is nice and all, but he was kind of a brat. Also, it always bothered me that all the main characters participate in the joyous vindication together at the end except for Alise (Courtney Thorne-Smith). The asshole bullies are allowed to lead this thing, and what does Alise have to show for everything that has happened? Her boyfriend Cappie is stolen by Maggie, and the last we see of her is her glowering at Maggie on the sidelines. Alise really got hosed in all this.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at September 17, 2009 12:19 PM

My first thought was the Regional Finals locker room slow clap in Hoosiers.

And yes, E, the Strictly Ballroom final dance scene slow clap should be on this list FOR SURE. Best slow clap of all time.

Posted by: lizzie (greeneyed fem) at September 17, 2009 12:42 PM

E and lizzie, would that count (Strictly Ballrom)? It's not an applause slow clap, it's a slow clap to give Scott and Fran a beat when the music stopped. Seems the purpose of the slow clap wasn't specified in the criteria. My ruling? Legal.

Posted by: Whorish Mouth at September 17, 2009 12:50 PM

*Ballroom. Dammit

Posted by: Whorish Mouth at September 17, 2009 12:51 PM

There's been a mistake. There's no such thing as a "best" slow clap.

They all suck equally, both in volume and slowness...

Posted by: Skitz at September 17, 2009 12:54 PM

Yo Dustin, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best slow claps of all time.

Somebody had to do it.

Posted by: Eep at September 17, 2009 1:04 PM

I considered Ballroom, but I don't really see how that qualifies as a real slow clap. A good slow clap starts with one clap and builds. Strictly Ballrooom is just crescendo applause with a smattering of emphatically slow claps smattered throughout. Smatter.

Posted by: Dustin Rowles at September 17, 2009 1:06 PM

Basttlestar Galactica.
Capitan 'Slow Clap' Adama uses the slow clap to great effect on more than one occasion.
I am sure BSG geek will have line and verse at the ready for examples, alas I am not that devout.

Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at September 17, 2009 1:08 PM

Strictly Ballroom.
/conversation.

Posted by: Brittany at September 17, 2009 1:54 PM

"You're welcome!!"

*starts slow clap*

Posted by: DeistBrawler at September 17, 2009 2:09 PM

hee hee Eep....I've been waiting for someone to do that for days now

Posted by: Lillie at September 17, 2009 3:03 PM

Where's Gorbachev starting the Politburo slow clap for Rocky at the end of "Rocky IV"?

Posted by: Mike-El at September 17, 2009 3:33 PM

Rocky IV is a good one and possibly the Kraft cheesiest moment on film.

Strickly Ballroom is legal dammit! It starts slow to give them a beat and ends in a joyful explosion of applause, that counts!

Posted by: Mebe at September 17, 2009 3:58 PM

I got a slow clap back about 20 years ago. Penicillin eventually cleared it up.

Posted by: ed newman at September 17, 2009 4:45 PM

I feel like the "Oh captain, my captain" ending for Dead Poets Society is akin to a slow clap.

Posted by: samantha t at September 17, 2009 4:48 PM

So true about Hoosiers! I love that movie, especially the scene where Hackman has the players measure the court. Sniff, sniff.

Posted by: samantha t at September 17, 2009 4:51 PM

Well shit, guys. You just made me go buy Strictly Ballroom. List or no list, I love me some low-budget Luhrmann.

Posted by: Anne (in Reno) at September 17, 2009 5:13 PM

every time i see that clip, i crack up at the girl who screams, "ooo that's gonna stain!"

i want to remix her into a techno song.

Posted by: gp at September 17, 2009 6:09 PM

Is that a retarded Patrick Dempsey in the header photo?

Posted by: SaBrina at September 17, 2009 6:35 PM

Oh please - this list is an absolute sham. Strictly Ballroom counts, and you know it. I won't hear about this smattering business; it's pussy-footing and it's petty, and it's all to hide the fact that the only good scene Baz Luhrman ever directed was the god's honest best slow clap ever - working way, way outside and beyond the usual parameters of the habitual Slow Clap, subverting and brilliantly deepening the genre with this great addition to the canon.

Posted by: Caspar at September 17, 2009 6:53 PM

Strictly Ballroom is the first movie that I thought of when I saw the title.

... now I gotta go watch that scene.

cue, best dance floor entrance EVAH.

Posted by: Stella at September 17, 2009 10:32 PM

erm, what Caspar said.

hola, mi nina!!

Posted by: Stella at September 17, 2009 10:36 PM

#1 = before Kyle Cease became semi-known.

Posted by: duckandcover at September 18, 2009 4:43 AM

Family Guy, when Brian wins his court case.

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Posted by: happyone11 at September 18, 2009 12:23 PM

Rudy. Rudy. Rudy! Rudy! RUDY!RUDY!RUDY!

Posted by: Kimmy Gibbler at September 18, 2009 7:29 PM

I've never seen any of these movies. But I once started a slow clap in Disneyland at the end of the Indiana Jones ride.

Posted by: dia at September 18, 2009 9:55 PM

I am so down with #2. That movie (along with The Sandlot Kids) defined my childhood.

Posted by: Daniel Hall at September 19, 2009 10:11 PM

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The Five Best Slow Claps of All Time

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