The wordsmiths at K&K were disappointed to learn this week that Oxford Dictionaries’ much anticipated “word of the year” for 2015 was not “fleek” or “badonkadonk” as we had hoped and written in our dream journal. In fact, it wasn’t even a word — it was an emoji. Even more disappointing is that it’s the “face with tears of joy” emoji used by lazy texters to express their hard-to-verbalize emotions surrounding such events as their child returning home safely after being lost in the wilderness for three days or the members of Bootsauce finally putting aside their creative differences and announcing a bootilicious reunion tour.
According to Oxford Dictionaries’ blog, the emoji in question was chosen because it “best reflected the ethos, mood and preoccupations of 2015.” Apparently, it was also the most used emoji around the world in 2015, making up 20 per cent of all the emojis used in the UK and 17 per cent of those in the U.S. We say apparently, because we’re pretty sure we’ve used the “smiling poo” emoji about a hundred times more than we’ve used that stupid crying happy face. Everyone knows the smiling poo is way more versatile and can express a far wider swathe of emotions such as happiness, satisfaction, playfulness, petulance or even subtly informing your boss that you won’t be coming into work because you ate some sketchy kimchi (is there any other kind?) and got food poisoning.
You know what else the smiling poo emoji can express? Deep in your bowels disappointment over Oxford Dictionaries’ lame choice for word of the year.
