person kneeling: medium-dark skin tone
Unicode: 1F9CE 1F3FE
Description
A person with a 'facepalm' gesture, where one hand covers or 'palms' the face, indicating embarrassment, frustration, or dismay. This version specifically features a medium-dark skin tone.
Group:
People & Body > person-activity
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Typically represents exasperation, annoyance, disappointment, self-reproach, or disbelief at someone's or one's own foolishness.
Backstory
The facepalm gesture itself has been a common non-verbal expression for decades, famously popularized as an internet meme through a scene from Star Trek: The Next Generation featuring Captain Picard. The emoji for 'Person Facepalming' was introduced in Unicode 9.0 (2016), and the skin tone modifiers (like 1F3FE for medium-dark skin tone) were introduced earlier to allow for greater representation.
Usage Examples
- Reacting to a bad joke: 'Did you really just say that? 🤦🏾♂️'
- Expressing disbelief at news: 'They canceled the show? 🤦🏾♂️'
- Responding to an obvious mistake: 'I told them not to touch it... 🤦🏾♂️'
- Self-reproach for a personal error: 'I left my keys at home again! 🤦🏾♂️'
- Observing someone's foolishness: 'You really wore flip-flops to the snow? 🤦🏾♂️'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely understood and used to express frustration or 'can't believe this just happened' moments, often in response to obvious stupidity or awkward situations.
East Asian culture:
Similar usage to Western culture, conveying a sense of being overwhelmed by someone's thoughtlessness or a regrettable situation. Can be used in a more comedic context.