Emoticons

From Waccoepedia

Emoticons are a series of (for example) clapping/wanking/gesticulating/backside showing animations.

Much like the use of the phrase (2), these emoticons can in fact replace the need for a poster to attempt to go through the cumbersome process of formulating the coherent thoughts needed to string a sentence together.

Used for random insults, approval or sometimes just as a cheeky chappie wink at the end of a disguised insult to lull the poster the insult was aimed at into a false sense of security. Probably quite useful when addressing east leeds on anything at all actually and I might give it a go to see if it works. <insert winking sunglasses wearing emoticon thing>.

Opinion is divided on the literary merit of emoticons. Some people claim that they would not be needed by anyone with a proper command of the English language, and are both a cause and a symptom of lazy writing. Others believe that the great English writers (Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens etc) would have used emoticons to enhance their works, if only they had been available at the time.

An email was recently discovered from William Shakespeare to Christopher Marlowe asking if he knew where to find an emoticon of a man smoking a cigar for use on the title page of Hamlet. Sadly, the reply is not available.