Before there were emoticons or any GUI-smileys, there was the original thang… 
My favorite silly smiley was the Klingon! {{{:-/ Second only to the 
What were your favorites? And did you create any yourself?
-RMx
reaper of non beliver’s souls since this morning – Horseflesh
I don’t know if I invented it but I use a pirate smiley at appropriate times.
P-)
I invented the drooley
:-)~~~~~
but others probably did too.
The clown smiley: *<:o)
and of course, the “help, there’s a spider on my head!” smiley: #
Ogre
6
My favorite has always been the Cthulhu smiley:
(Oo)
/|||\
Man, I hope that comes out right.
@@@
Marge Simpson
((
Homer Simpson
I didn’t invent them, but I enjoy them
~0-( The sad cyclops having a bad hair day…
<(’’<) <(’ ‘)> (>’’)> the kirby dance!
0.o o.0 The twitchy look
Tarrsk
9
The reverse gape smiley always looked cutest to me.
D: !
I like Japanese smiles:

A smile!
(^_^)
A more common variation.
(><…)(…><)
Denying strongly (bun bun) (Imagine someone shaking his/her head strongly)
I Never did use them before though, as the OP mentions, we have our GUI-smileys: 
[sub]That last smilie is a pain in message boards like this one, which swallow spaces![/sub]
How about this one… bear with me…

I always liked to have a little hair
=:-)
$8-)
Bespectacled smiley with a toupee.
: [)]
Monkey smiley or smiley with goatee.
I always thought of those as kitty-cat smilies, for some reason.
:=(
Hitler “smilie” - not very useful…
Grim
Alias
18
For all you Pogues fans out there, there’s the Shane MacGowan smilie.
:^#
j_sum1
19
:Þ
<alt>0222 for the character.
This is my most often used. Kind of cheeky. Looks a whole lot better in some fonts than others.
?-|
(dead smilie). Never actually had occasion to use it.
j_sum1
20
Should have hit preview. The dead smiley should have a double obelisk for eyes.