face with tears of joy
Unicode: 1F602
Description
A yellow face with a wide, open-mouthed smile and tears flowing from its eyes.
Group:
Smileys & Emotion > face-smiling
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents overwhelming laughter, amusement, or joy, so intense that it brings tears to the eyes. Often indicates something is extremely funny or humorous.
Backstory
This emoji was introduced in Unicode 6.0 (2010) and has consistently been one of the most frequently used emojis globally, often topping charts as the most popular emoji. Its design visually represents the common human experience of laughing so hard that one cries.
Usage Examples
- Reacting to a hilarious joke: 'That's the funniest thing I've heard all day! 😂'
- After watching a funny video: 'I'm literally crying laughing at this. 😂'
- Describing a humorous situation: 'You should have seen it, it was absolutely ridiculous! 😂'
- Sharing a funny anecdote: 'And then he said... 😂 I couldn't stop laughing!'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Universally recognized as 'tears of joy' or extreme laughter. Frequently used to react to jokes, funny videos, or humorous situations.
East Asian culture:
Generally understood as excessive laughter, though in some contexts, depending on the tone of the message, it might be interpreted more broadly as a sign of extreme emotion (positive) resulting in tears.