Emoticons Are Not a Type of Transformer
I know talking about emoticons is soooo 1997, but after a few recent emails, I have to bring up something that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else.
If I were to describe 
I’d say “wink”.
If I were to describe 
I’d say “sad face”.
But every time I see 
I can’t help but envision the big, shit-eating grin of some 35 year old corporate America asshole (and/or obese, taco-stained co-worker) who just followed up a horrendous insult about your dead mother with “No offense though, right?”
has to be the best way to communicate passive-aggressiveness in the history of the universe.
It’s God’s gift to the passive-aggressive hordes of America.
Only the brilliant, absurdly popular and emoticon-drenched passive-aggressive notes blog seems to mention this at all. Otherwise, Google’s got nothing for me. And don’t we all experience the knuckle-whitening, teeth-grinding, blinding fury of reading an email where your favorite frenemy ends the most passive-aggressive sentence in the world with ?
As if we couldn’t already envision our pal Bobby Burglecutt’s fat face glacially shifting into a fist-magnet of a grin. He’s got to hammer down the point that he meant no offense (oh yes he did) by letting you know that his face is hypothetically wearing a sunshiney smile as he typed out, “Sorry you caught me in a wife/mom sandwich last night- no hard feelings, right? ”
Of course, emoticon-driven passive-aggressiveness rears its ugly head most with roommates. Though I’ve been blessed with good ones, I’ve seen friends’ who get awesome emails with lines like these:
“Hey, could you please buy your own shampoo? And maybe pay me for the one you used? ”
“Could you maybe be quieter at night, because one of your roommates is a teacher. ”
“No worries about eating my grapes. Maybe you can take it out of next month’s rent? ”
“It’s cool, but seriously, sometimes I want to kill you and feast on your heart. ”
Got any amazing passive-aggressive emoticonning going on in your Inbox?
It’s funny you should mention emoticons, when today’s Dr. McNinja strip deals with that very concept:
http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=16&issue=13
Personally
kills me. It feels like it’s saying, ‘come on be a pal, and while I’m here let me dislodge the dagger I just put in your back’.
Personally
kills me. It feels like it’s saying, ‘come on be a pal, and while I’m here let me dislodge the dagger I just put in your back’.