I have to ask, why do Americans sporadically clap? Me and my family watch Fox news for amusement purposes, they had this guy on it a couple of nights ago talking about body armour. When he said something like "We think it's sufficient" the entire audience at the Fox place stood up, clapped and started whooping. It was really quite confusing.
I like to think that maybe the people at Fox news aren't the best cross section of the American public, but they did the same thing when I went to a cinema in America...

Another thing that bugs me about Fox. Whenever someone phones in with a well reasoned view of something that doesn't support what Bush says, the guy just hangs up on them and starts mocking them, usually through exaggerating what they said to rediculous levels, ultimately culminating in some strange disasterous situation.
Out of interest, does Fox news follow the Republicans full stop, or just the incumbent party?

They follow the party that well give them the most ratings. And trust me, the clapping is on cue.

I have no idea why Americans clap at the end of a movie...I've never done it and it amuses me when I see it done, although thats rare. What I have seen more often is people clapping and cheering after the trailer of a much anticipated movie comes out, like the first of the new Star Wars trilogy.

Guilty. And wasn't just the first of the new trilogy. I was doing it back when 'The Empire Strikes Back' made its first trailer appearance. :D

yeah, but what about SHOOTING at movie screens? Is America totally nuts, or what?

Maybe if people shot at the clappers and yellers...

I skipped over most of the thread, but to reply to the OP, it happens ALL THE FRIGGIN TIME here.

I agree with K-Wise... annoying is annoying and thats the bottom line.

If anyone is still reading this thread I just want to add my two cents. In my experiance it's not a black thing. It's a moron thing. My acquaitances all throughout life have run the gamut of backgrounds and families and it didn't matter what color or sex they were. If I went to see a movie with them and they would talk during it, not only was I gravely embarrased to be in a theater with this someone (or this one time numerous people, ugh) who was ruining a fairly expensive time out for everyone, but it would reveal a bit of their personality that I may not have discovered yet. The fact that their opinion is so important it just has to be shared with everyone. The fact that they are so important that everyone must know what they are feeling at any given moment. In short, the fact that they are morons.

i abide by racial stereo types in default settings. and i dont feel remotely bad about it. if i see a theatre filling up with a black majority, i leave because i dont need 50+ people voicing thier opinion about the movie, while the movie is on. easy. no love lost for black people...just how i operate.

[QUOTE=TheBrit]I have to ask, why do Americans sporadically clap? Me and my family watch Fox news for amusement purposes, they had this guy on it a couple of nights ago talking about body armour. When he said something like "We think it's sufficient" the entire audience at the Fox place stood up, clapped and started whooping. It was really quite confusing.
I like to think that maybe the people at Fox news aren't the best cross section of the American public, but they did the same thing when I went to a cinema in America...
QUOTE]

The problem is that nobody teaches us when it is appropriate to clap, so we do it all the time, just to be sure we don't miss an opportunity to make noise.

If you ever attend the symphony in Sacramento, you will find that we clap at completely inappropriate places: between movements, after a solo...we are really horrid about this sort of thing.

Maybe this talking thing is really a commentary on a unique social aspect of the Afro-Amer. community in the US. Sure, white people clap at inappropriate times, but...have you ever noticed how some people have to name things they see in the movie, or agree with a character when he's describing some ominous technical hardware?

I did this when I was younger, and I stopped, but there's always someone around who's doing it. Isn't it just as bad?