Universal greeting

Eh, close enough.

The universal greeting is used as a means to express good will toward alien beings when a language barrier is present. However, it does not always work that way.

It is commonly transliterated as Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong.<ref>The Final Battle!</ref>

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

The Transformers cartoon

The Allicons on Quintessa initially reacted well to the greeting, but when Hot Rod and Kup ran out of energon goodies, the Allicons began chanting it as they attacked the Autobots. However, the Junkions on the Planet of Junk took it rather well even without treats and threw a party, indicating that the Universal Greeting can be roughly translated into "We come in peace", "Take me to your leader", "Care to dance?", or whatever seems appropriate.

Strangely, humans had never heard of it before. Stranger yet, the rest of the galaxy is populated by robots. The Transformers: The Movie

Marvel The Transformers comics

The universal greeting is understood by most creatures in the galaxy. It can be roughly translated to "hello, we mean you no harm," or "we come in peace," or "do you hate Dirtwad Decepticons as much as we do?"<ref name="UK">Grim Grams, issue 102, defining the Universal Greeting.]</ref>

Sticker Adventures

Kup successfully used the 'Universal Autobot Greeting' (and an Energon Stick) to make peace with the Junkions. Battle on the Junk Planet

2005 IDW continuity

After Wheelie crash-landed on the planet LV-117, populated by a variety of giant monsters, he attempted to use the universal greeting on a chaosteros and lost an arm for his troubles. Spotlight: Wheelie

Kup claimed to have once used the universal greeting to stop himself from getting eaten. It subsequently helped him to convince the Micronauts of his good intentions. Enter the Shadow Some time later, he tried it again on the inhabitants of New Prysmos, but it didn't go so well. Schismatic Following Kup's passing, Ironhide used the universal greeting to remember the fallen hero. The Curtain

2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon

There existed a universal greeting dance, used to convince even the most implacable enemies of one's sincerity (presumably by convincing them that one is willing to humiliate oneself so thoroughly that one could not possibly harbor ill will). The Fish Test

Animated cartoon

WTF? BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The Universal Greeting has accompanying hand signals. The variants of these for five-digit species were demonstrated kindly by Wreck-Gar, who interpreted Lugnut raising his fist to deliver one of his famous punches as an invitation to perform the Universal Greeting, and reciprocated accordingly.

Stage 1: Raise the left hand, palm outward to the person being addressed. Keep the thumb tucked to the side of the palm, pointing upward. Clench the index and pinky fingers as if making a fist and extend the middle and ring fingers vertically. The gesture should be made at the same time as speaking the "graaaaagnah" part of the verbal Universal Greeting.

Stage 2: Extend the index, ring and pinky fingers. Curl the middle finger and thumb towards the palm of the hand so that they touch at right-angles, with the side of the thumb's tip pressed against the nail of the middle finger. This should be done in time with the verbalization "wheep".

Stage 3: Clench the index, middle and ring fingers. Extend the thumb and pinky fingers so that the gesture resembles a horizontally-flipped 'L'. Shake the hand sideways twice, in time to the syllables of "ni ni"

Stage 4: As the final "bong" is spoken, open your hand out so that all digits are extended and slightly splayed, as if to make a hand-print in clay. Pause momentarily and then press the thus-opened hand against that of the person you are addressing, who themselves should have a likewise open palm.

On NO ACCOUNT should the final part of the hand signals be performed if you are addressing the Decepticon Lugnut when his fist has transformed into a pressure-sensitive weapons trigger. Actually, it's probably best if you don't perform the Universal Greeting in any way before Lugnut, as any salutation short of "All hail Megatron" would be likely to incur his wrath. Garbage In, Garbage Out

Aligned continuity family

War for Cybertron

Kup greeted a newly trained young Autobot with the universal greeting. War for Cybertron (DS)

Ironhide used the universal greeting on a space slug, which ignored him and carried on. The whole ordeal puzzled Warpath. War for Cybertron (console)

Cybertron Adventures

While searching out the Geosynchronous Energon Bridge's main controls deep underground, Air Raid came across a lone Core Mite. The two stared at each other for a bit before Ironhide suggested using the universal greeting on it. The Mite ran off before a confused Air Raid could try it. Cybertron Adventures

Ironhide's advice only comes over the radio if the player does not shoot the Mite. This exchange unlocks one of the level's Challenge Mode trophies.

Exiles

Thundertron and Wreck-Gar used the universal greeting several times. Wreck-Gar noted that Thundertron did not intend to act peacefully, even though he used the universal greeting when he first encountered the Junkions. Transformers: Exiles

Variant spellings

• Bah Weep Graaagnah (also written as Graaaagnah and Graaaaagnah during a dialogue between Wreck-Gar and Hot Rod) Wheep Ni Ni Bong

--Transformers: The Movie Marvel Comic adaptation

• To be determined

--Transformers: The Movie Ladybird adaptation

• Bah Weep Graaaagnah Wheep Ni Ni Bong

--a fan from North Humberside in the UK letters page<ref name="UK" /> (matches one of the versions listed above from Transformers: The Movie Marvel Comic adaptation)

• Bah-weep-Graaaagnah wheep ni ni bong (same spelling as previous variant but different capitalizations and hyphenizations)

--the "Activate Autobot City" trivia game (referring to the "Universal Greeting", capital U, capital G) on the Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD

• Baa weep grahna weep ninny bong

--closed captioning on the Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD during the movie itself

• BAH-WEEP-GRAAAGHNAH WHEEP NI-NI BONG

--Transformers: The Movie IDW comic adaptation

• Ba weep granna weep ninny bong

--Transformers: War for Cybertron (DS)

• Bah-weep-graaaahnah wheep ni ni bong.

--Transformers: Exiles

Notes

• Transformers: Prime's fellow Hub show Dan Vs. sneaked in "bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong" as a meditation chant in '"Dan Vs. Anger Management".

Foreign versions

• Japanese: Uchūkyōtsū no aisatsu (宇宙共通の挨拶, "universal greeting"), berwip crawna-wi pinibon (バーウィップグラーナウィーピニボン bāwippu gurānawī pinibon)
• Mandarin: Yǔzhòu Wènhòu Yǔ (宇宙问候语, "universal greeting"), Bāwéi Gǔlānà Wéi Níníbāng (巴维古拉那维尼尼邦)

References

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