BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Sherlock hands under chin pose? (Otter meme)

**Posted by elizabethdianne** January 8, 2014 6:30 pm

Benedict Cumberbatch mentioned in the many interviews that the otter in the otter meme, is doing the right pose with the hands under the chin whereas the screen grab of him has his hands in front of his face. I was just wondering if this is actually written in the books (I did see someone write that this was in the books), being a Sherlock pose, or is this just something that Benedict adopted/ scripted to do when he is thinking?

**Posted by SusiGo** January 8, 2014 6:40 pm

It is the classic Sherlock Holmes thinking pose mentioned by ACD and adopted by many artists and actors. As for the otter thing - I guess it is from Cabin Pressure, not from "Sherlock".

**Posted by elizabethdianne** January 9, 2014 5:58 am

Wait, so it is actually like canon? A pose that is marked 'Sherlock'? Who's the ACD?

And waait, what Cabin Pressure?

**Posted by Wholocked** January 9, 2014 7:26 am

Haha welcome to the Benedict Cumberbatch fandom ;-)

The otter meme is not from Cabin Pressure as far as I know, it's just something someone came up with. Cabin Pressure is a radio play BC is in. Very funny you should check it out on Youtube.

ACD is the initials of the original author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan-Doyle

**Posted by elizabethdianne** January 10, 2014 3:58 am

OHH so it is canon! Wow, I was wondering why Benedict Cumberbatch says there was a particular pose and I was thinking why is it so exact and precise! I get it now!

**Posted by Ormond Sacker** January 11, 2014 6:01 pm

As already stated the steepled-fingers-under-the-chin pose is from the canon.

As for the otter thing, well it's a fan thing like red pants Monday.
See, at some point there was a fan who dicovered a couple of pictures where Sherlock's (Benedict's) facial experssions looked very very like some pictures she had of some otters' facial expressions. The damn thing have been bouncing around the fandom ever since, like this one: http://redscharlach.tumblr.com/post/19565284869/otters-who-look-like-benedict-cumberbatch-a.
Not sure whether or not this is the "original" or not, this thing have been around so long, and been made in so many versions, no one is really sure who invented it.