This is something between a question and a shower thought. People use air quotes to stimulate “quoting” a word or short phrase in the middle of a sentence. Are there any other punctuation marks that can be stimulated this way? And in particular, is there a gesture for parentheses (like this)?
If not, then why not? How did quotes get special treatment?
And if yes - how many people would actually understand what those other gestures mean? (I am reminded of that scene from Friends where Joey admits he doesn’t know what air quotes mean)
Image taken from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quotes / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Airquotes.gif
Air quotes almost never mean literally quoting someone else. I’d say it signifies that the speaker doesn’t agree with the words they are saying. Per Wikipedia: “Air quotes are often used to express satire, sarcasm, irony or euphemism and are analogous to scare quotes in print.”
The very wikipedia article you are quoting says that’s exactly what air quotes are right in the opening paragraph. As it says, air quotes are used in speech as quotation marks are using in print. You’re not wrong that its often about the sarcasm, etc but it is primarily in relation to another’s speech.
It also includes this reference which describes the sarcastic use of air quotes as “a snide, easy way to discredit or distance oneself from the other side’s words”