Jump to content

Poop emoji

Page semi-protected
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The emoji as it appears on Twemoji, which is used on X, Discord, Roblox, the Nintendo Switch, and more

Pile of Poo (💩), also known informally as the poomoji (slang), poop emoji (American English), or poo emoji (British English), is an emoji resembling a coiled pile of feces, usually adorned with cartoon eyes and a large smile.[1] Originating from Japan, it is used as an expression in various contexts. Some possible uses include: as a response of passive aggressive emotion; for comedic value; as commentary on what's bad; or as its literal meaning. Pile of poo was added to Unicode in Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and to Unicode's official emoji documentation in 2015.

The pile of poo emoji is regarded as one of the most useful emoji. The icon appeared as a character in the 2017 animated comedy film The Emoji Movie, which it was voiced by Patrick Stewart. It has also surfaced and been used by a variety of sources, including X's auto-reply message into a statue raised from the US Capitol in Washington, DC.

History

The first emoji appeared after being sold by the J-Phone and released in 1997. J-Phone subsequently became Vodafone Japan, and is now known as SoftBank Mobile.[2] The 1997 SoftBank features a black-and-white pile of poo emoji with a smile and steam lines for comic effect.[3] In 2007, Google, looking to expand its presence in Japan and Asia as a whole, partnered with au by KDDI to develop emoji for Gmail, a project codenamed "Mojo". Gmail's design for the pile of poo emoji lacked a face and was circled above by animated flies. When deciding which emoji to include, Takeshi Kishimoto, Google's Japanese product manager, went directly to the manager of Gmail and convinced him that the pile of poo emoji was the "most useful" emoji. This was corroborated by a statistical analysis undertaken by Google to determine which emojis were the most popular among Japanese users. According to Google software engineer Darren Lewis, the pile of poo emoji was "way up there" in terms of popularity. Design for the emoji was left to Google Doodle artists Ryan Germick and Susie Sahim, who sought to put a "Google spin" on the existing emojis. They drew inspiration from the existing emoji designs as well as the character Poop-Boy from the Dr. Slump manga by Akira Toriyama. They limited themselves to a size of 15×15 pixels and colors used only in Google's logo.[4][5] Google had decided to include the pile of poop emoji into the Gmail emoji package when it became a significant component of Japanese digital communication. The United States then absorbed that facet of Japanese culture.[6] The first popular emoji set was created by an employee of Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo Shigetaka Kurita.[7] Pile of poo was added to Unicode in Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and to Unicode's official emoji documentation in 2015.[8][9] The emoji is in the Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs Unicode block: U+1F4A9 💩 PILE OF POO.[10]

Every emoji, including "poo," is rendered differently by Apple, Android, and other platforms. Around Android's poop, there are insects and wavy lines that imply a foul odour. Apple's poop mound is grinning and has big eyes. X's poop has eyes as well, but it appears rather taken aback, presumably because it has just recently come to terms with the fact that it is a sentient poop with eyes.[7] In 2017, a "frowning pile of poo" emoji was shortlisted for inclusion in a future Unicode release. After negative feedback on this character from WG2 experts including Michael Everson and Andrew West, the frowning pile of poo emoji was removed from the list of emoji candidates.[11] In 2024, Google has stated that it will develop an app that will be able to create "fart noise" using the poo emoji in Android messaging.[12]

Popularity

Heather Armstrong with poop emoji at daughter's birthday party.
Character information
Preview 💩
Unicode name PILE OF POO
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 128169 U+1F4A9
UTF-8 240 159 146 169 F0 9F 92 A9
UTF-16 55357 56489 D83D DCA9
GB 18030 148 57 218 51 94 39 DA 33
Numeric character reference 💩 💩
Shift JIS (au by KDDI)[13] 246 206 F6 CE
Shift JIS (SoftBank 3G)[13] 249 155 F9 9B
7-bit JIS (au by KDDI)[14] 118 80 76 50
Emoji shortcode[15] :poop:
Google name (pre-Unicode)[16] POOP
CLDR text-to-speech name[17] pile of poo
Google substitute string[16] [ウンチ]

As of 2015, it was the most popular emoji among Canadians.[18] However, across all generations in 2022, a pile of poo has been considered the least preferred emoji to use.[19] Brenden Gallagher of Complex ranked the smiling poop emoji as one of the best "emoji power", writing that the smiling poop emoji is amazing since it is based on a contradiction.[20] Wired's Jon Mooallem considered publicizing his mother's use of the dancing poop emoji on social media,[21] while ABC News's Samantha Selinger-Morris states in her 2016 article that the smiling poop emoji is "one of the most popular emojis in existence" due to its "ineffable charm" and "ability to transcend language barriers and political differences". As such, it has been featured on Mylar birthday balloons and cupcakes.[22] A digital graffiti of poo emoji was used as an anti-subway protest in Mount Pleasant Street.[23] American cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike created a poop emoji NFT in Web3 that will appear when someone owns already.[24]

The poop emoji features in the film and application software. It appears as a character named "Poop Daddy" in 2017 American animated comedy film The Emoji Movie, voiced by Patrick Stewart.[25] Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo from an American animated sitcom South Park has been often referred to as the original poop emoji.[26] A pile of poo emoji appears in a singing karaoke called app Animoji,[27] including in "Poop Troop".[28] Additionally, it also appears in an app that was created by WaterAid called "Give a sh*t", where users may create their own poop emojis with a variety of colours and accessories.[29]

In 2018, a court used the poo emoji, namely the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Jennifer Behrens, a law librarian and researcher at Duke University, claims that the only court ruling she has seen that uses the poop emoji is in Emerson v. Dart.[30] Facebook's internal documents reveal that a single emoji may distinguish between a hostile remark and an innocent joke. Depending on how it is used, the poop emoji may occasionally be considered hate speech.[31] Following the announcement of Amazon's second phase of its Arlington, Virginia, headquarters design. People claimed that it looks a lot like the whirling poop emoji but with trees covering it.[32] During Copa del Rey, Brazilian footballer Dani Alves was subjected to an internet meme after his haircut was said to be similar to a poop emoji.[33]

In 2023, Elon Musk set X to auto-reply to press emails with a poop emoji. Last May, Musk responded with the same graphic after X's former CEO, Parag Agrawal, gave him a thorough explanation of why it would be challenging to gauge the extent of bot usage on the network. Musk responded with customary brevity, saying, "💩 = BS," after X referenced the response in its lawsuit to compel him to finish buying the site.[34] The auto-reply message was later replaced with a new message.[35]

In 2024, visitors made fun of a £6,000 sculpture of a snail that was erected at Medmerry Nature Reserve after it was compared to a pile of poo.[36] A brand-new temporary bronze installation that shows the pile of poo on Nancy Pelosi's desk was also placed across from the US Capitol in Washington, DC to "honor" the individuals responsible for the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[37] A colorectal surgeon has also used a poop emoji outfit while running in London Marathon.[38]

Merchandise featuring a poop emoji includes a shirt, dress, rafts, and a toilet plunger has been made.[39][40][41][42]

See also

References

  1. ^ "💩 Pile of Poo Emoji". emojipedia.org. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  2. ^ Alt, Matt (7 December 2015). "Why Japan Got Over Emojis". Slate. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  3. ^ Willa Paskin (15 April 2020). "Why Did Poop Get Cute?". Slate. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  4. ^ Schwartzberg, Lauren (18 November 2014). "The Oral History Of The Poop Emoji (Or, How Google Brought Poop To America)". Fast Company. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  5. ^ Healy, Claire (12 May 2015). "What does the stinky poop emoji really mean?". Dazed. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  6. ^ Kaufman, Joanne (24 May 2018). "If You Think the Poop Emoji is Gross, Don't Read This". The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b Sternbergh, Adam (16 November 2014). "Smile, You're Speaking Emoji". New York Magazine. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  8. ^ "Unicode 6.0 Emoji List". emojipedia.org. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  9. ^ "Emoji Data for UTR #51". Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  10. ^ "Unicode Character 'PILE OF POO' (U+1F4A9)". FileFormat.info. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  11. ^ "Sad poop emoji gets flushed after row". BBC. 6 December 2017. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  12. ^ Quentyn Kennemer (30 April 2024). "Google is building a fart button into Android". The Verge. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  13. ^ a b Unicode Consortium. "Emoji Sources". Unicode Character Database.
  14. ^ Scherer, Markus; Davis, Mark; Momoi, Kat; Tong, Darick; Kida, Yasuo; Edberg, Peter. "Emoji Symbols: Background Data—Background data for Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols" (PDF). UTC L2/10-132.
  15. ^ JoyPixels. "Emoji Alpha Codes". Emoji Toolkit.
  16. ^ a b Android Open Source Project (2009). "GMoji Raw". Skia Emoji.
  17. ^ Unicode, Inc. "Annotations". Common Locale Data Repository.
  18. ^ Lauren O'Neil (22 April 2015). "Canadians top the world in smiling poop emoji use, report finds". CBC News. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  19. ^ Chandra Steele (15 September 2022). "No 💩:Everybody Hates the Poop Emoji". PCMag. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  20. ^ Gallagher, Brenden (14 November 2013). "Emoji Power Rankings: The Top 25". Complex. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  21. ^ Jon Mooallem (8 September 2014). "Help: My Mom Is Using the Poop Emoji Way Too Much". Wired. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  22. ^ Selinger-Morris, Samantha (9 December 2016). "Why are we so passionate about the smiling poop emoji?". ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  23. ^ Stein, Perry; Simmons, Holley (18 June 2015). "A D.C. neighborhood and its emoji-filled, anti-Subway protest". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  24. ^ Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (10 January 2022). "A Poop Emoji NFT Shows That 'Web3' Is Actually Pretty Centralized". Vice. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  25. ^ Giardina, Carolyn (18 January 2017). "Patrick Stewart to Voice Poop Emoji in 'Emoji Movie'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  26. ^ Peter Robinson (10 April 2019). "From the joke shop to the high street: why poo is no longer taboo". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  27. ^ "New Apple iPhone X ad features a singing karaoke poop emoji called an 'animoji'". South China Morning Post. 29 November 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  28. ^ Laura Beck (8 April 2017). "There's a New Line of Poop Emojis". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  29. ^ Eleanor Goldberg (19 November 2015). "Poop Emojis Highlight Fact People Worldwide Lack Access To Sanitation". HuffPost. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  30. ^ Sarah Jeong (6 April 2023). "The poop emoji: a legal history". The Verge. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  31. ^ Joseph Cox (7 June 2018). "Internal Documents Show How Facebook Decides When a Poop Emoji Is Hate Speech". Vice. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  32. ^ Sarah Paynter (10 February 2021). "Amazon's new Virginia headquarters building compared to a poop emoji". New York Post. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  33. ^ Marissa Payne (30 May 2015). "The Internet has noticed Barcelona star Dani Alves's new 'poop emoji' haircut". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  34. ^ Matthew Cantor (23 March 2023). "Twitter's been sending press the poop emoji. Why does Musk love it so much?". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  35. ^ Jill Goldsmith (21 July 2023). "Twitter Stops Emailing Poop Emojis In Response To Press Queries; Replaces It With New Message". Deadline. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  36. ^ "Snail sculpture that cost £6,000 looks like 'poo emoji', locals say". Telegraph. 19 November 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  37. ^ Anna Betts (25 October 2024). "New poop statue displayed near US Capitol to 'honor' January 6 rioters". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  38. ^ "London Marathon: Lancaster surgeon running in poo emoji outfit". BBC. 19 April 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2025.
  39. ^ Morwenna Ferrier (13 January 2015). "The Poo shirt (or the rise of emoji fashion)". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  40. ^ Amanda Kooser (9 March 2015). "Poo Emoji Dress is surprisingly classy, but also covered in poo emoji". CNET. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  41. ^ Chris Plante (28 June 2016). "Poop emoji rafts belong in every pool". The Verge. Retrieved 1 February 2025.
  42. ^ Catherine Shoard (22 February 2019). "Oscars gift bags to include cannabis skin cream and grinning toilet brush". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2025.