With roots stretching all the way back to Mesopotamia, circa 3200 BCE, the written word has a distinguished place in the history of humanity. It is the building block of countless great works of literature, both fiction and non-fiction, spanning centuries. From Shakespeare to Shaw, Ethan Frome to Fifty Shades Of Grey, the written word has helped artists to externalize the internal, in the interest of a greater shared understanding among all people. And now, sadly, it is obsolete, consigned to the rubbish heap of irrelevance. Some feel that the death knell for the written word was sounded with the rise of the emoticon, whose own proud lineage dates back to the mid-1800s.
But it is the emoticon’s more colorful scion, the emoji, that is truly to blame here. First appearing on Japanese phones in the late 1990s, the popular pictographs have now reached their apex. For today, Adult Swim announces the launch of its own group of over 150 downloadable emoji modeled on the stoner-friendly network’s popular series and characters. The Adult Swim emoji are available for free on both iTunes and Google Play. This video offers a glimpse of what communication between sentient beings will now look like, in a post-Adult Swim emoji world.
Among the series selected for this particular and peculiar form of immortality: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Rick And Morty, Mike Tyson Mysteries, Squidbillies, The Eric Andre Show, Metalocalypse, Robot Chicken, Venture Bros., and Black Jesus. The written language can now take a well-deserved vacation. From now on, bite-sized icons of a grinning Frylock or a poop-shaped Meatwad will be taking over. And is there any sentiment so noble or so complex that it cannot be communicated via a picture of Morty vomiting rainbows? Unlikely. One caveat: As of this writing, the Space Ghost/Brak Show contingency does not seem to be represented in emoji form, so users should not expect to be able to text anyone a Moltar emoji. For now.