About

Eye Lips Eye Emoji 👁👄👁 is a combination of emoji that typically means "It Is What It is", which expresses feelings of acceptance at an undesirable outcome.

Origin

The origin of the meme is unknown. On September 11th, 2015, Twitter ^[1] user @mily2502 tweeted one of the earliest available uses of the emojis, using the emoji to punctuate the Backstreet Boys lyrics "Am I original? Am I the only one? Am ah SEX-U-AAAAAALLL" (shown below).

Spread

Over the next few years, the emoji combination continued to grow on Twitter. On November 2nd, 2018, comedian Jaboukie Young-White tweeted,^[2] "people in other countries: that church was nearly burnt down in 1315 by a queen who found her husband cheating americans: wow 👁👄👁 that mcdonalds has been there for 30 years." The tweet received more than 28,000 likes and 3,500 retweets in less than two years (shown below, left).

The following year, Twitter^[3] user @crushed_stars tweeted, "what if 😳😳 you do euphoria inspired glittery eye makeup on me ✨👁👄👁✨while i’m laying on my bed and you’re straddling my waist 🙈👀(and we’re both girls) 👩‍❤️‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩💕." The tweet received more than 53,000 likes and 10,000 retweets in less than one year (shown below, right).

On May 15th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @AnasApprentice3 tweeted a series of artist pencil boxes that resemble the emoji set. The tweet received more than 198,000 likes and 51,000 retweets in less than two months (shown below).

On June 17th, 2020, the website StayHipp^[5] defined the trend as a comment typically used on TikTok to mean "individual who witnessed the recording of a bizarre, funny, or cringey TikTok video was staring in shock, disgust, or confusion."

That month, Twitter^[6] account @itiseyemoutheye launched, garnering more than 6,400 followers in less than one month. According to Forbes,^[7] is it unclear what the account does or what it is promoting. They write:

Overnight, an app/service/thing sporting three emojis for its name (signifying a mix of surprise, shock, anger or disgust) has piqued the interested of many an early-adopter on Twitter. With a mysterious line “It is what it is” and a tweet that promises…something will happen at 7 pm PST, 06/26. The app, since no-one really knows if this is even a real thing yet, is just asking for an email and will send you details when your number in line comes up.

On June 26th, 2020, Josh Constine published an article about the emoji on Substack^[8] titled "What does 👁👄👁 mean?"

Later that day, the account announced that the "It Is What Is" is a platform for donation to racial justice initiatives.^[9] They write:

What started out as a meme in our small group chat grew bigger than we ever imagined. So we thought about how to make use of the hype cycle we’d stumbled upon. But honestly, we didn’t have to think too hard: in this moment, there’s pretty much no greater issue to amplify than the systemic racism and anti-Blackness much of the world is only beginning to wake up to. We’re excited that we could use our newfound platform to drive action towards a few causes that are doing important work towards racial justice: Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund,The Okra Project,The Innocence Project, and others.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References