About

Holy Moly Emoji, also known as Holay Molay, refers to a yellow emoji emoticon saying "Holy moly!" with a visible speech bubble. The original emoticon was created by the website Smiley Central. In 2021, a video that voiced over the Holy Moly emoticon surfaced. It then spread to Instagram and Facebook. Going into 2023, the Holy Moly meme became commonplace on TikTok, evident in its usage by Pinkcore creators like Ballincat43 as well as by cat video creators.

Origin

The emoticon website Smiley Central^[1][2] was created in 2003. It hosted the original Holy Moly emoticon (shown below).

Smiley Central was shut down by its creators in 2012.^[3]

On August 6th, 2013, the Holy Moly emoji was posted on the website Symbols & Emoticons for Facebook.^[4] In 2017, the website launched a mobile app called Talking Smileys Emoji – Funny which included the Holy Moly emoji and other "speaking smileys" that had voiceovers.

On July 2nd, 2021, YouTuber^[5] ouchjake posted a video called "holy moly" which showed a moldy version of the animated emoticon saying its phrase. Although unconfirmed, the video was likely screen-recorded from the Talking Smileys Emoji – Funny app. The video is currently the first-known upload. It received roughly 611,300 views in two years (shown below).

Also on July 2nd, 2021, YouTuber^[6] RIP BOZO posted the same video. However, their post received less engagement, gaining over 15,100 views in the same timeframe.

Spread

Going into the 2020s, the low-quality video of the Holy Moly Emoji gained memetic usage online. For instance, the Holy Moly emoji gained mass usage and mainstream acclaim in 2023, when TikTokers began using it in their content. This likely started due to a viral repost of the original video posted by TikToker^[7] @danx2m on April 9th, 2022, which received over 2.6 million plays in a year.

Usage of the video peaked in July 2023, evident in a July 4th, 2023, video posted by TikToker^[8] @alexalex97111 which received roughly 2.2 million plays and 194,800 likes in four months (shown below, left).

On July 13th, 2023, Pinkcore and 30core creator @ballincaat43 widely popularized the emoji, starting with their initial TikTok^[9] that received roughly 5.7 million plays and 1.1 million likes in four months (shown below, right).

The Holy Moly emoji became increasingly common in Silly Cat videos and memes, such as a video posted by TikToker^[9] @sillycart on September 20th, 2023, receiving roughly 6.3 million plays and 1.7 million likes in two months (shown below, left).

On October 23rd, 2023, TikToker^[10] @.rythmic posted a remix of the Holy Moly emoji, gaining roughly 630,100 plays and 30,200 likes in one month (shown below, right). The video's sound^[11] later became a viral sound with over 73,100 uses by November 16th, 2023.

In late 2023, many of the videos from TikTok inspired reposts and original iterations on YouTube, such as a Smurf Cat meme posted by YouTuber^[12] MemeHub on September 12th, 2023, that received over 664,700 views and 6,600 likes in two months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References