# The Wally Smilie **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 29, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590 "2004-04-29T00:38:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/1 "2004-04-29T00:38:21Z")
Hey, I just noticed: Why doesn’t the “Wally” require a colon at either end? - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/2 "2004-04-29T07:37:45Z")
That’s a lack shared by: 🙂😛😉 ;j 😃 :o and ☹ Maybe, WAG, because “wally” isn’t easily mistaken as a word? ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/3 "2004-04-29T11:22:04Z")
> [@Ice Wolf](#): > > Maybe, WAG, because “wally” isn’t easily mistaken as a word? But ‘wally’ _is_ a word. It means ‘fool’. Maybe it’s just a British thing. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/4 "2004-04-29T11:30:42Z")
Since the smile works without a closing : then obviously it’s just a naming convention to surround the word with :'s. So I’d guess the answer is whomever set the smiley up just didn’t add the final : in because they forgot, didn’t know about the convention or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/5 "2004-04-29T11:32:16Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > But ‘wally’ _is_ a word. It means ‘fool’. Maybe it’s just a British thing. In some parts of the UK, it is also a slang term meaning picked cucumber. ---
**Author:** ![the\_first\_supraliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@the\_first\_supraliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_first_supraliminal)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/6 "2004-04-29T16:48:07Z")
You can put anything into that substitution table. You don’t even need a starting ; or ; If Kleenex, on their message board, wanted every occurrance of “kleenex” to be automatically converted to a logo icon of “Kleenex®”, that’s how they’d do it. Whoever did it, probably jdavis the tech admin, undoubtedly just cloned and modified one of the other emoticons. When ;j [; j] was chosen, it was copied from 😉 [; )] and :wally [: wally] from 🙂 [: )] ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/7 "2004-04-29T17:27:28Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > But ‘wally’ _is_ a word. It means ‘fool’. Maybe it’s just a British thing. I hate to yell ‘site’, but I have a friend named Wally and I would love to bust his stones with this… ---
**Author:** ![the\_first\_supraliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f475e1/32.png) [@the\_first\_supraliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_first_supraliminal)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/8 "2004-04-29T17:36:27Z")
Here’s a few for silly/foolish [http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=88955&dict=CALD](http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=88955&dict=CALD) [http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/wn](http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/wn) [http://lookwayup.com/lwu.exe/lwu/d?w=wally&st=&t=&h=&s=f&b=](http://lookwayup.com/lwu.exe/lwu/d?w=wally&st=&t=&h=&s=f&b=) [http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict](http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict) and one for “fine, sturdy” > **[Definition of WALLY](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wally)** > > fine, sturdy… See the full definition ---
**Author:** ![Wally\_Smilie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ec9cab/32.png) [@Wally\_Smilie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wally_Smilie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/9 "2017-01-17T03:25:22Z")
Hey Guys Believe it or not Wally Smilie is a person living in Australia ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/10 "2017-01-17T04:45:03Z")
> [@Wally\_Smilie](#): > > Believe it or not Wally Smilie is a person living in Australia But no longer [here on the SDMB](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=153856). ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-wally-smilie/242590/11 "2017-01-17T04:53:58Z")
Since this is an old topic and not very relevant anymore, I’m going to close it.