Here is a quote from an article about this guy Ronnie Biggs who just passed away.  Being (at least originally) from NJ ... two fingers really doesn't signal a profanity.  Can somebody explain this to me?
 

LONDON -- "Great Train Robber" Ronnie Biggs arrived for his funeral on Friday in a hearse bearing a large flower display in the shape of an obscene two-finger V-sign, a fitting emblem of his lifelong defiance of the British authorities.

 
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/03/22166397-obscene-flower-display-is-great-train-robber-biggs-final-dig-at-authority?lite&lite=obinsite
 
 

Ironically, it seems that to actually get noticed for these obscenity gestures, one has to be dead.

The meaning V-sign depends on whether your palm is outward in inward.
Palm out it's the Victory-sign, palm in it's about the same as stiff midfinger.

Try here.

 

P.S. I only say anything in an attempt to be unfunny as possible! As Master Bapu would want 

 
I remember being taught that using the two fingered 'V-sign' as an insulting gesture had its origins back in the wars between England and France.
 
The Weapon of Mass Destruction of the day was the longbow, and all able-bodied Englishmen were required by law to practise using one at least once a week in peace-time.
 
English archers taken prisoner by the French suffered the amputation of the index and second fingers from the hand they drew the bow with to prevent them from ever being able to use one again.
 
Hence Englishmen who had never been captured would use the V-sign to taunt their French opposition and show they were able to draw and fire the longbow.

SteveStrummerUK
 
I remember being taught that using the two fingered 'V-sign' as an insulting gesture had its origins back in the wars between England and France.
 
The Weapon of Mass Destruction of the day was the longbow, and all able-bodied Englishmen were required by law to practise using one at least once a week in peace-time.
 
English archers taken prisoner by the French suffered the amputation of the index and second fingers from the hand they drew the bow with to prevent them from ever being able to use one again.
 
Hence Englishmen who had never been captured would use the V-sign to taunt their French opposition and show they were able to draw and fire the longbow.

Gave them the 'ol "Pluck Yew?"

 
How drôle

Well...as long as they didn't raise them to their lips and wriggle their tongue between them. That there's a whole nother thang!

The v-sign is hugely outdated. Nowadays if you want to signal disrespect to someone with your hands in Britain, you have to position your hand as if you were holding a can of Coke, then rotate the wrist up and down along its x-axis.