This perhaps is the first version of "flipping the bird" on prime time TV.(Rowan & Martin's "Laugh In". Was an American sketch comedy television program which ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968 to May 14, 1973.)
If they thought some deserved getting "the finger" They would be given "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award", saluting actual dubious achievements by the government or famous people. A breakthrough in TV broadcasting.
Holding ones arm outstretched with thumb and fingers retracted except the middle one and the middle finger extended as far as possible, You are now Flying the Fickle finger of fate. When you aim it at someone in particular, you are giving them a "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award"
Fogey/fogy /fougi/ sl. (early 18C+, orig. Scot) old-fashioned, stuck-in-the mud.
Person with old fashioned ideas which he is unwilling to change: Come to the disco and stop being such an old fogey!
You think me an old fogeyand an old tory, his thoughtful voice said. I saw three generations since O’Connel’s time. I remember the famine. Do you know that the orange lodges agitated for repeal of the union twenty years before O’Connel did or before the prelates of your communion denounced him as a demagogue? You fenians forget some things. (James Joyce, Ulysses. PenguinBooks,1992. p. 38)