{{Short description|Emoji representing a human skull}} [[File:Noto Emoji v2.034 1f480.svg|thumb|Skull emoji as it appeared in Google's Noto Project]]
The '''skull emoji''' ({{Unichar|1F480}}) is an emoji depicting a human skull. It was added to Unicode's Emoticon block in October 2010. Originally representing death or goth subculture, the emoji grew to represent a wide range of emotions by the early 2020s, including joy, laughter, "I'm dead from laughter"<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-04-19 |title=💀 Skull Emoji: Meaning & Usage |url=https://emojiterra.com/skull/ |access-date=2026-04-03 |website=EmojiTerra |language=en}}</ref>, and embarrassment. It is especially popular among members of Generation Z and Generation Alpha.
==Development== {{further|Emoji#History}}
An emoji depicting a skull was originally included in the proprietary emoji sets from SoftBank Mobile and au by KDDI. Using these sets as a source,<ref name="utcL210132" /> the Unicode Consortium included the skull emoji in their Unicode 6.0 standard, released in October 2010.<ref>{{cite web|title=💀 Skull Emoji|url=https://emojipedia.org/skull|website=Emojipedia|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> Prior to that, the skull emoji was available for iPhone users in Japan, initially using a specific Private Use Area for compatibility with SoftBank's set.<ref>{{cite web|title=🍏 Apple Emoji List — Emojis for iPhone, iPad and macOS [Updated: 2024]|url=https://emojipedia.org/apple/iphone-os-2.2|website=Emojipedia|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> Following the discovery that installing Japanese apps unlocked the emoji keyboard, Apple released emoji support worldwide in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cocozza|first1=Paula|title=Crying with laughter: how we learned how to speak emoji|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/17/crying-with-laughter-how-we-learned-how-to-speak-emoji|website=The Guardian|date=November 17, 2015|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref>
==Evolution of meaning and usage== Throughout the 2010s, the skull emoji retained its original meaning, symbolizing death or goth subculture.<ref>{{cite news|last=Medley|first=Lorenza|date=August 28, 2022|title=Get to Know Gen Z|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/wisconsin-state-journal-skull-emoji/165462143/|via=Newspapers.com|work=Wisconsin State Journal|page=D8|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kelati|first=Haben|date=January 31, 2022|title=New emoji appear every year, but where do they come from?|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/01/31/where-new-emoji-come-from/|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> In 2016, ''Wired'' reported that people were more likely to use the skull emoji when they posted online about their phones being broken, signifying that they are "socially dead".<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Thompson|first1=Clive|title=The Emoji Is the Birth of a New Type of Language (No Joke)|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/04/the-science-of-emoji/|magazine=Wired|date=April 19, 2016|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> The emoji had limited popularity, ranking 92nd among the most used emojis on Twitter in 2015.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Chalabi|first1=Mona|title=The 100 Most-Used Emojis|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-100-most-used-emojis/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216031635/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-100-most-used-emojis/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 16, 2018|website=FiveThirtyEight|date=June 5, 2014|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> It reached the top 10 in the United States by 2019, but remained outside the top 50 in other countries.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Dalvin|title=Happy World Emoji Day! These are the top 10 icons used this year on Facemoji|url=https://usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/07/17/world-emoji-day-people-really-like-using-love-laughing-characters/1744974001/|website=USA Today|date=September 17, 2019|access-date=February 15, 2025}}</ref>
In the early 2020s, the skull emoji was popularized by Generation Z who started using it as a replacement for the phrases "I'm dead" or "I'm dying" – short for "I'm dying of laughter" – to express joy or happiness,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Piazza|first1=Jake|last2=Khan|first2=Melina|last3=Capoot|first3=Ashley|title=How Gen Z uses technology — flip phones, digital cameras, voice memos|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/17/how-genz-uses-tech-flip-phones-digital-cameras-voice-memos.html|publisher=CNBC|date=October 17, 2023|access-date=February 25, 2025}}</ref> as well as laughter.<ref name="CNN2021">{{cite web|last1=Yurieff|first1=Kaya|title=Sorry, millennials. The 😂 emoji isn't cool anymore|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/14/tech/crying-laughing-emoji-gen-z/index.html|publisher=CNN|date=February 14, 2021|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> They viewed Face with Tears of Joy emoji, the emoji previously used to convey these emotions, as "uncool",<ref>{{cite news|last1=Parkinson|first1=Hannah Jane|title=Once sneered at, it seems emojis are having the last laugh|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/15/once-sneered-at-emojis-last-laugh-world-emoji-day-monday-17-july|work=The Guardian|date=July 15, 2023|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref> due to its association with older generations.<ref name="CNN2021" /> Before this meaning of the skull emoji became popular, in 2015, {{Unichar|1F47B}} was used instead.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lange|first1=Maggie|title=The Ghost Emoji Is Perfect|url=https://www.gq.com/story/the-ghost-emoji-is-perfect|website=GQ|date=October 26, 2015|access-date=February 15, 2025}}</ref> Over time, the skull emoji has evolved to represent a wide range of emotions,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lovejoy|first1=Ben|title=These emoji and acronyms are no longer cool, says study|url=https://9to5mac.com/2024/12/12/these-emoji-and-acronyms-are-no-longer-cool-says-social-media-analysis/|website=9to5Mac|date=December 12, 2024|access-date=March 17, 2025}}</ref> including embarrassment.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Johnson|first1=Dave|title=A List of Common Emoji Meanings|url=https://www.alphr.com/emoji-meanings/|website=Alphr|date=August 23, 2023|access-date=March 17, 2025}}</ref>
==Reception== Adam Aleksic of ''The Washington Post'' viewed the skull emoji as a symbol that represents humor or irony and believed that it became a punctuation mark. Comparing the emoji to a tone tag, he wrote: "Punctuating the text with a skull lightens the tone and signals humility".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Aleksic|first1=Adam|title=Gen Z's new punctuation|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/05/15/emoji-keyboard-punctuation-gen-z/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 15, 2024|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref>
Kayleigh Dray of ''Stylist'' thought the popularization of the skull emoji was related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the "dystopian pandemic nightmare" it resulted in. "The laugh-cry emoji has died a sad little death and been replaced with an ever-so-appropriate skull", wrote the journalist.<ref name="Stylist2021">{{cite magazine|last1=Dray|first1=Kayleigh|title=The sad death of the laugh-cry emoji (and why it bothers us so much, really)|url=https://www.stylist.co.uk/news/laugh-cry-emoji-tiktok/487161|magazine=Stylist|date=February 19, 2021|access-date=February 14, 2025}}</ref>
==Encoding== {{charmap|1F480 | name1 = Skull | IncludeGB = 1 | namedref1 = Emoji shortcode<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/joypixels/emoji-toolkit/tree/master/extras/alpha-codes |title=Emoji Alpha Codes |author=JoyPixels |work=Emoji Toolkit |access-date=April 24, 2020|archive-date=January 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123200208/https://github.com/joypixels/emoji-toolkit/tree/master/extras/alpha-codes |url-status=live }}</ref> | map1 = Shift JIS (au by KDDI)<ref name="EmojiSrc">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCD/latest/ucd/EmojiSources.txt |title=Emoji Sources |work=Unicode Character Database |author=Unicode Consortium |author-link=Unicode Consortium}}</ref> | map1char1 = F6 D1 | map2 = Shift JIS (SoftBank 3G)<ref name="EmojiSrc" /> | map2char1 = F7 5C | map3 = 7-bit JIS (au by KDDI)<ref name="utcL210132">{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10132-emojidata.pdf |id=UTC L2/10-132 |title=Emoji Symbols: Background Data—Background data for Proposal for Encoding Emoji Symbols |first1=Markus |last1=Scherer |first2=Mark |last2=Davis |first3=Kat |last3=Momoi |first4=Darick |last4=Tong |first5=Yasuo |last5=Kida |first6=Peter |last6=Edberg |archive-date=June 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190615020038/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2010/10132-emojidata.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> | map3char1 = 76 53 | ref1char1 = :skull: | namedref2 = Google name (pre-Unicode)<ref name="gmoji">{{cite web |url=https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/skia/+/donut-release2/emoji/gmojiraw.txt |title=GMoji Raw |work=Skia Emoji |author=Android Open Source Project |author-link=Android Open Source Project |date=2009 |access-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-date=October 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003132905/https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/skia/+/donut-release2/emoji/gmojiraw.txt |url-status=live }}</ref> | ref2char1 = SKULL | namedref3 = CLDR text-to-speech name<ref>{{cite web |url=https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/master/common/annotations/en.xml |author=Unicode, Inc |author-link=Unicode Consortium |title=Annotations |work=Common Locale Data Repository |access-date=September 21, 2020 |archive-date=January 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123200208/https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/master/common/annotations/en.xml |url-status=live }}</ref> | ref3char1 = skull | namedref4=Google substitute string<ref name="gmoji"/> | ref4char1 = {{bracket|どくろ}} }}
==See also== * LOL * Glossary of Generation Z slang
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Wiktionary-inline|💀}}
{{Emoji navbox}}
Category:2010s in Internet culture Category:2020s in Internet culture Category:Symbols introduced in 2010 Category:Skulls in art Category:Individual emoji Category:Generation Z slang Category:Computer-related introductions in 2010