I love it when old threads re-surface. Interesting reading.

On re-reading I'm thinking that the photo gesture probably came from the ass's ears origins, i.e. making someone look like a fool. I also wonder whether the ass's ears and the cuckold sign became intertwined because a cuckold tends to be thought of as someone who is being made a fool of by his wife, "behind his back" i.e. without his knowledge. I'm thinking of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream where transforming the man called Bottom into an ass is considered to be a great joke by Oberon, the King of the Fairies. I'm also thinking of court jesters, who probably did do the cuckold or the ass's ears signs behind certain people, to make other people laugh. It would be particularly apt if the target was in fact being cuckolded and didn't know it.

I think the devil's horns is a different gesture altogether.

My niece has been in Japan for some years. She showed us a photo of a group of Japanese students, friends of hers at the University where she was studying. One or two of them were using the ass's ears gesture. Probably learned from European friends.

Helen