May I suggest timing is everything ...
Pinpointing that precise moment can make all the difference between the sweet taste of success and a complete flop.
Pity no one gave that nugget of advice to Prime Minister Theresa May before she performed that awkward and botched Mexican Wave jumping to her feet while watching the England v France football match scoring yet another spectacular own goal.
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Hide AdPredictably, the Internet erupted with glee at her faux pas and there’s been many jocular remarks about it being as ill-timed as the General Election.
It may well have even overtaken prancing through fields of wheat to become the wildest thing she has ever done.
The out of sync Mexican Wave is certainly cringeworthy and you can feel your eyes recoiling with horror as the PM stands up with her arms aloft in a delayed reaction when the rest of the stadium has already sat back down.
It is strangely compulsive to watch and is reminiscent of embarrassing dad dancing which is so bad, you just can’t stop watching it.
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Hide AdWhile I have chuckled along with everyone else, I have to confess to feeling a surge of sympathy for her.
You see getting the timing wrong is something I have been prone to many times.
When you’re watching a show at the theatre and everyone is urged to clap along, for some reason my hands seem to meet a split second after everyone else’s.
Embarrassingly, when I was younger and watching my idol Jason Donovan live, I squealed “Jason!” at the top of my voice … just as everyone else had gone quiet.
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Hide AdAnd when people sway their hands from side-to-side at a show, somehow I always seems to lean the wrong way.
And yes, there have been occasions when I too have mis-timed a Mexican Wave.
You know when Gloria Estefan trilled: “The Rhythm is Gonna Get You” – well it missed. I blame it on the boogie.
When dancing, what I lack in slick and synchronised moves, I make up for in exuberant enthusiasm.
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Hide AdThe difference is my appalling sense of rhythm isn’t usually captured on camera. And I’ve not had the entire nation poking fun at my mis-timing blunders.
The problem is Theresa May has backed herself into such a tight corner that she can no longer win – and I’m not talking elections here. If she’d resolutely sat in her seat and refused to take part in the Mexican Wave, she would have been labelled a miserable party pooper.
But by being out of time with everyone else, she has opened herself up to more ridicule as her wave was far from strong and stable.
She could have performed a perfectly executed Mexican Wave, but even then, I doubt people would have been flooding the Internet with admiration.
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Hide AdThe issue is that after the election debacle, too many people think it’s time for Theresa May to go - and any more mistimed encounters or ill judged remarks will now be pounced upon.
After witnessing her Mexican Wave, my sage piece of advice to people would be not to ask her to tell you a joke or play a game of tennis.
And never ask her to bake you a souffle.