These are my favorite smileys selected from the canonical list of smileys by James Marshall. I only added one national comic hero smiley.
:) midget smiley ) the Cheshire cat smiley B-) smiley with sunglasses %-( broken glasses :-D laughing (at you) :-o oh! (surprised) #:-O oh!! (shocked) :-| disgusted, or playing harmonica *:o) clown O :-) angel C=:-) chef -=#:-) wizzard P-) pirate - -:-( punk rocker (real punk rockers don't smile) >:-EI vampire :-~i smoking :-? smoking pipe :/i no smoking! :-}> having long beard [:-) wearing walkman d:-) wearing Baseball cap d :-) hats off to your great idea! ;-)}<\\\\> wearing necktie *|:^)(.)(...) snowman ~:o baby oO:)& grandmother ~~:-( net.flame
=|:-)= Abraham Lincoln 4:-) George Washington 5:-) Elvis Presley 7:-) Ronald Reagan (=(:->* Uncle SAM C|:-=)X Charly Chaplin *<|B-3D> Santa Claus ~:n) Schrobiltgen =<:o) Bert from Sesame Street 8) Kermit
(-_-) basic smiley <@_@> another bixie smiley (=_=) sleeping *^_^* cute little girl "._." yas
@-->-- a rose ..|._ the opposite of a rose >-^);> fish pq´ animal \@__ snail 6\/) elephant o.)-e pig /\o/\ spider <:3 )~~~ mouse ^^^^^U^^^U^=___ alligator <o==o) a car oo---oo-Bo a truck hTd chairs and table __/\o_ a swimmer @*&$%! you know what that means! 2B|^2B message from Shakespeare _\|/_ sunset _/^\/^\_ mountains ~Y~ `Y' ^Y^ trees _/^\/^\_~Y~_^Y^__\|/__`Y'_`Y'_/^\/^\_ sunset in the mountains
___m_oo_m___ the classical spying at the wall ___m_+o+_m___ clown spying at the wall ___m_(OnO)_m___ with glasses ... ___^..^___ cat ... ___m_.(%)._m___ pig ... ___,___ ant ... ___o-n___ key forgotten after ...
Smileys were invented about 1980 by Scott Fahlmann.
In the elder days, standard abbreviations were used to express a feeling, like
G grin LOL laughing out loud ROTF rolling on the floor HHOS ha ha only serious.
Since then, an enormous amount of different smileys has been produced (mostly for fun, only a handful of them is really used in mail, and in fact, they should be used in small amounts: a message with more than one smiley per paragraph becomes annoying to read)
There is a canonical list of smileys, maintained currently by James Marshall, which holds 1367 entries at 1996-05-30. It was located at the Scarecrow's site and is no longer online.
1996-10-19, Patrick Hahn (phahn@vo.lu)