Smiling, Sweating Emoji
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About
Smiling, Sweating Emoji refers to an image of a yellow emoji over a black background smirking and sweating with drops of water visible on its skin. The image was seemingly AI-generated and it trended on Twitter / X and Instagram in late 2023 as a reaction image and image macro. The emoji was also the centerpiece of the Imagine 2 Onions meme.
Origin
The Smiling, Sweating Emoji was reportedly created with Midjourney by Know Your Meme [2] user realboneduck (shown below), originally shared on Midjourney on June 19th, 2023, per Imgur[9] screenshots submitted by the user.
The inspiration for the Midjourney prompt was the smirking emoticon widely used on Discord (shown below, left).
It's currently unknown who originally reposted the Smiling, Sweating Emoji. Its first known post was on October 6th, 2023, in a message screenshot shared by X[1] user @Demonic7340, gaining 32 likes in four months (shown below, right).
In the comment section left on the Know Your Meme[2] image, user realboneduck claimed that the original repost was likely from one of two since-deleted X accounts ("@TroubledHonky or @ChillAssMinor").
Spread
The higher-quality version of the image with a wider crop was shared by Redditor[3] comicguy69 on October 23rd, 2024, in an /r/Persona5 comment section
The image went largely viral on November 7th, 2023, when Instagram[4] user @hugeplateofketchup8 used it in a meme reading, "Imagine 2 Onions. Heck, Imagine 3 Onions," gaining over 129,100 likes in three months (shown below, left).
Then, on November 10th, 2023, X[5] user @BigBabyScumbag captioned it, "when the waiter repeats my order back to me and it sounds fire," gaining over 89,000 likes in three months (shown below, right). The tweet gained viral reposts on Instagram[6] in the following days.
Going into 2023, the image spread elsewhere on social media, evident in an NNN meme shared to /r/nonutnovember[7] on November 27th, 2023, receiving over 220 upvotes in three months (shown below, left).
Usage of an AI-expanded version of the emoji also spread, evident in a post shared by X[8] user @fallenchungus on December 25th, 2023, gaining over 3,800 likes in two months (shown below, right).
Various Examples
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External References
[1] X – @Demonic7340
[2] Know Your Meme – realboneduck
[3] Reddit – comicguy69
[4] Instagram – @hugeplateofketchup8
[5] X – @BigBabyScumbag
[6] Instagram – @needless.mp3
[7] Reddit – /r/nonutnovember
[8] X – @fallenchungus
[9] Imgur – The original generation Wetwet (smiling, sweating emoji) upscale
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