Currently nerding out because I was watching ‘Oh My God, Is This a Joke?’ and I noticed that Luke did this odd movement when Sam approached him as Hans von Purple-Beurer. (Video attached below)
Research led me to discover he was probably doing a military heel click; it was used in the German military starting in 1871 with the establishment of the German Reich, and it was definitely used during WWII. It was adopted from Prussian military tradition.
The idea behind it was that when soldiers were standing at attention (Habacht Stellung in German) their feet were touching at the heels and pointing outwards, parallel from each other. If a commander ordered his soldiers to stand at attention, he would hear the heels click in unison to know they were all ready. Aside from that purpose, it was simply a military tradition that was made popular by a rise in German Nationalism, I assume.
I love this because it shows Luke’s love of history and attention to detail; as far as I can tell, he is the only one to do this. The fact that he knew what it was and used it appropriately (when confronted by a superior officer) is so cool. Now I want to watch their other historical plays to see what other details he might have snuck in.