The Unicode Consortium, the standards body that really ought to know better, has come up with this year's list of bizarre additions to the already long and weird list of emojis. As always, the preview list was revealed in honor of World Emoji Day, the annual emoji-fest that has happened on 17 July for the last twelve years.

World Emoji Day is July 17 because that's the date shown on the calendar emoji, and sees events such as a competition to choose popular emojis or those that sum up the current year. 

The purpose of World Emoji Day is to promote the use of emojis and spread the enjoyment that they bring to all of those around us. Hah.

The Unicode Consortium is the nonprofit behind the Unicode Standard, and they get the say on what new characters including emoji are added to the Unicode Standard. The choices are allegedly based on the suggestions of users, which just goes to show how weird people can be. 

This year's list is made up of the usual collection of things you can't imagine ever using, and doesn't fill in any of the gaps we encounter when looking for things such as 'bit cheesed off with life'. There's now going to be a trombone; a treasure chest, and a distorted face. The hairy creature is obviously just bigfoot lurking in the bushes. I can imagine using the fight cloud, and it is very reminiscent of the Tom and Jerry fights back in my youth. I'm not sure about the apple core - is this a subtle message about what the consortium thinks about Apple technology? Surely not. Ballet dancers - just what we've needed. There's a landslide icon that will come in handy on election nights I suppose. And finally, the Orca. 

The blog post from the Unicode Consortium announcing the additions said:

"These new emoji have long standing symbolic meanings, are visually distinctive, and contain multitudes of expression."

I'm off to lie down in a darkened room to ponder the long standing symbolic meaning of sending a message containing an apple core, a trombone and an orca. 

More Information

Emoji List On Unicode

World Emoji Day Website

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