This is the hand motion that Michael's brother would do to him, when he said, "whammy. whammy."

Okay, so uh, when I was a kid, my brother used to tell me that if you put your hands like this (see photo) and say, “whammy, whammy, whammy” that person will have bad luck for 5 years and so he used to do that to me all the time.

Did he make this up, or did he hear it from someone else?

Uh, I think he made it up and it spread within his friends.

And so then all his started doing that to people?

Only to me.

It was done specifically to you?

Ya, that ass.

Did you ever do it to people?

No.

And did you ever teach anyone it?

No.

Or did you just get the tail end of it?

I got the tail end of it always. I tried to do it to him, and he’s like, “it doesn’t work.”

My reaction:

Kids like to pick on other kids. It makes sense that Mike’s brother would’ve done this to lessen Mike’s self-esteem.