gesture about "the billion thing"

[agentparker]

I'm watching the Tesla PowerWall keynote speech delivered by Elon Musk, so when he talked about the number of the PowerPacks that can change the energy usage in the world he made such gesture and said "(2 billion) may seem an insane number and I'm very tempted to do the billion thing".

So I'm wondering why the gesture means billion?

 

[PaulQ]

So I'm wondering why the gesture means billion?

It does not mean 'billion.' It is simply a gesture.

 

[agentparker]

It does not mean 'billion.' It is simply a gesture.

But in the video, he was doing that after saying the sentence I wrote above, and then the audience laughed, so I'm thinking, maybe that's some kind of joke from a comedy?

 

[PaulQ]

There is no general gesture that means "One billion" or "billion".

and then the audience laughed

The audience seems to be filled with people he has chosen to laugh at his 'jokes'... I have looked at the video but it is quite long: at what time in the video does he make this gesture?

 

[agentparker]

There is no general gesture that means "One billion" or "billion".

The audience seems to be filled with people he has chosen to laugh at his 'jokes'... I have looked at the video but it is quite long: at what time in the video does he make this gesture?

around 14:40.

 

[PaulQ]

OK: this seems to be American Sign-Language for 1 billion. See https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/billion

 

[Myridon]

Does he hold his little finger up to the side of his mouth between those two photos? If so, he's imitating Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies.
(Search for Dr evil one million dollars.)

 

[agentparker]

OK: this seems to be American Sign-Language for 1 billion. See https://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/billion

Wow! Thank you! Such a cool website!

 

[agentparker]

Does he hold his little finger up to the side of his mouth between those two photos? If so, he's imitating Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies.
(Search for Dr evil one million dollars.)

I went to see the film and I think that's it! Thank you SO much!