Stephen Colbert celebrates his own official emoji, says we need it before Election Day

Stephen Colbert debuts the Colbert emoji

(Image credit: Late Show)

On Tuesday's Late Show, Stephen Colbert unveiled a new emoji approved by the Unicode Consortium, the global emoji gatekeepers. This one, he said happily, they are calling the "Colbert emoji," with an arched eyebrow and straight smile conveying "skepticism, accompanied by the concepts of disapproval and (mild) surprise." Colbert did a pretty convincing recreation of the emoji with his own face, if he did say so himself: "It's an uncanny resemblance. That's me when I have jaundice."

The person who submitted the emoji for approval had to jump through a lot of hoops, though. "It's such a Byzantine process, we might not see my emoji... until 2017," Colbert said, to boos from the audience. "It's fine. I'm sure we won't need an emoji that means skepticism and disappointment during this election year." But then he cheered up. "My own emoji!" he said. "You can't buy this kind of publicity, and for once, I didn't." He also demonstrated some other facial expressions the Unicode Consortium was free to use. They're all pretty good, but the one that will haunt your nightmares is "elf exposing himself in the park." Get a sneak preview of your scary future emojis below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.