# We need to lose the "rolls eyes" emoticon. **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [May 31, 2012, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602 "2012-05-31T01:33:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/61 "2012-06-01T02:42:38Z")
Am I the only one who sees the truncated thread title on the front page and autocompletes it as “…of fat”? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/62 "2012-06-01T02:58:11Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ > █████████████████████ Yes! How do you do, old friend! ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/63 "2012-06-01T03:02:32Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > This made me cry, just a little. 🙂 How about a few more tears? ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/64 "2012-06-01T03:08:46Z")
All right, genius (and I really mean that in all sincerity), I now want to see a giant Smashy. Bonus brownies if you can animate his arm. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/65 "2012-06-01T03:10:55Z")
> [@happy lendervedder](#): > > all right, genius (and i really mean that in all sincerity), i now want to see a giant smashy. Bonus brownies if you can animate his arm. █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/66 "2012-06-01T03:12:23Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Not that I really give two fucks about this issue, but, I don’t really agree. For someone not really giving two fucks about it, you are really making a really huge fuss. Really. > [@](#): > > When I see it I always see the poster as doing their Kevin the teenager routine, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfHM568oBWg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfHM568oBWg). Not a pretty look. I think it is not the one who uses :rolleyes: that is most like Kevin. And you’re right: it isn’t pretty. ---
**Author:** ![Molotok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Molotok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molotok)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/67 "2012-06-01T06:51:24Z")
Even if the offending smiley were removed, I imagine its adherents would just use : rolleyes : (no spaces). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/68 "2012-06-01T06:56:34Z")
Dunno about anyone else, but I always use “roll eyes” as a mark of innocence, like the guy who farts in an elevator: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :rolleyes: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/69 "2012-06-01T08:23:53Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > For someone not really giving two fucks about it, you are really making a really huge fuss. Really. > I think it is not the one who uses :rolleyes: that is most like Kevin. And you’re right: it isn’t pretty. A huge fuss? I think your fuss meter needs calibrating, my two whole posts don’t even register on the fuss meter. Its fuss lite. Try again. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/70 "2012-06-01T14:23:42Z")
I still think we need the “he’s crazy” smiley. **Elmwood** , can you pull that one off? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/71 "2012-06-01T15:01:28Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ > █████████████████████████████ You magnificent bastard! ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/72 "2012-06-01T15:22:43Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > How about a few more tears? > > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ > ████████████████████████████████████████████████ Who you calling a putz? Humph. I’m offended. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/73 "2012-06-01T15:25:49Z")
Hey guys, lighten up on the rolleyes use in this thread. We don’t want to use them all up here and not have any left for the rest of the board. > [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > Though Mr. Rolley is vastly over-used, it can on occasion fulfill its function on a message board: that is it can _soften_ the written word. You’ve said this before, but I still don’t get it. > [@](#): > > I’ve said this before, but an alternative to winky might be helpful. I made this icon years ago but have been unable to name the guy. [http://wm40.inbox.com/thumbs/2c\_130b92\_3bbb2b38\_oG.gif.thumb](http://wm40.inbox.com/thumbs/2c_130b92_3bbb2b38_oG.gif.thumb) > Call him ::hope:: ? That’s because we can’t tell what the hell that expression is supposed to be. He’s got one big googly eye, one small screwy eye, and a quirk to his mouth. That means 😕 :rolleyes: is a real facial expression people actually make. It expresses sarcasm. Your emoticon doesn’t match any natural facial expression. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/74 "2012-06-01T15:33:53Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > That’s because we can’t tell what the hell that expression is supposed to be. He’s got one big googly eye, one small screwy eye, and a quirk to his mouth. That means 😕 I would call it “drunk.” ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/75 "2012-06-01T15:45:54Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > He’s got one big googly eye, one small screwy eye, and a quirk to his mouth. […] > > Your emoticon doesn’t match any natural facial expression. It does if you’re [Bill the Cat](http://www.mortalwombat.com/Special/BilltheCat.jpg). Anyway, count me in with those who dislike the roll-eye smiley. 93.5% of of its use implies nothing but snide, contemptuous passive-aggression, merely a shortcut to “you’re stupid or dishonest” for those insufficiently skilled in English to convey that in a rule-conforming manner. Should a little picture be enough to infuriate someone? I dunno; it _expresses_ something; should a meaningful expression ever be of a nature to infuriate someone? If a little picture shouldn’t ever make anyone angry, then why should the admins ban outright insults — after all, the characters you’re reading are each no less a tiny picture than a smiley. I’m not especially attached to the idea of banning it outright, although I wouldn’t shed a tear if the whole collection of insipid little smilies were done away with. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/76 "2012-06-01T17:07:15Z")
> [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#): > > It does if you’re [Bill the Cat](http://www.mortalwombat.com/Special/BilltheCat.jpg). > > Anyway, count me in with those who dislike the roll-eye smiley. 93.5% of of its use implies nothing but snide, contemptuous passive-aggression, merely a shortcut to “you’re stupid or dishonest” for those insufficiently skilled in English to convey that in a rule-conforming manner. Should a little picture be enough to infuriate someone? I dunno; it _expresses_ something; should a meaningful expression ever be of a nature to infuriate someone? If a little picture shouldn’t ever make anyone angry, then why should the admins ban outright insults — after all, the characters you’re reading are each no less a tiny picture than a smiley. > > I’m not especially attached to the idea of banning it outright, although I wouldn’t shed a tear if the whole collection of insipid little smilies were done away with. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/77 "2012-06-01T17:13:40Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > :rolleyes: 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/78 "2012-06-01T17:15:06Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > :rolleyes: I choose to interpret that image as an individual in the process of reading the text quoted above him, his mouth slowly curling into the smile of pure rapture that results inevitably from experiencing my eloquence. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/79 "2012-06-01T17:36:44Z")
> [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#): > > I choose to interpret that image as an individual in the process of reading the text quoted above him, his mouth slowly curling into the smile of pure rapture that results inevitably from experiencing my eloquence. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602/80 "2012-06-01T17:46:29Z")
If I ever decide to do a suicide by mod…I’ve found my method now. I’ll find the most obnoxious poster here…wait until they are on one of their “rolls”…then I’ll break out a giant “putz” smiley as shown above…except putz will be spelled quite wrong and start with a c. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-need-to-lose-the-rolls-eyes-emoticon/623602.md?page=5)