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Groucho Mask, Man In Wedding Veil And Cockroach Among Year's Newest Emoji

About 117 new emoji symbols will be rolled out this year, and there's a special emphasis on gender inclusivity.
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By 

Senior Reporter, HuffPost

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It’s an emotional time of year for people who love emoji.

The Unicode Consortium, which maintains a standardized collection of characters used on smartphones around the world, has announced 117 new emojis that will be rolled out to various platforms later this year.

The new emoji for 2020 include a Groucho Marx mask, a smiling face with a tear and bubble tea, but there is also an emphasis on gender inclusivity.

For instance, one emoji depicts a woman in a tuxedo while another has a man in a wedding veil, and there is a gender-inclusive alternative to Santa and Mrs. Claus named “Mx Claus,” according to Emojipedia.org.

Other emojis that made the cut include something called “Italian hand gesture,” a fondue pot, the Transgender Pride Flag and a toilet plunger.

Oh, and for some reason, a cockroach.

As you might expect, many Twitter users had emotional reactions to the new emoji.

But at least one person had concerns on how the new emoji might work if they got into nefarious hands — i.e., hi, Mother.

Before You Go

11 Unexplainable Emojis
(01 of11)
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Wrong. It’s a NAME BADGE. We would never have guessed.
(02 of11)
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For the record, the “H” buildings are not hospitals, (that's this guy) but a "Hotel" and "Love Hotel." (Think about that for a minute... There's actually an emoji for LOVE HOTEL.) The mystery building with the red thing is apparently a Japanese post office, and those really are just a house and a house with a garden. And, much to our dismay, the “BK” building is not a Burger King or Brooklyn, but a bank. A "Blue Bank Building," to be specific. We should have known.
(03 of11)
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That little guy is a Japanese rice cracker with seaweed. But for the record, a door on a meatball clearly just leads to more meat.
(04 of11)
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The official Emoji definitions are “dragon” and “dragon face,” but their relevance to everyday text-life (and the weird horns) remains a mystery.As it turns out, these are actually two different types of camels... the one-humped Dromedary Camel, and the two-humped Bactrian Camel. #MoreYouKnow
(05 of11)
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So that first one is definitely a normal teary face. But sadly, there are no crying eyebrows here. The second one is apparently just a “disappointed but relieved face.” The next is “face with cold sweat,” and the final smiling situation is “smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat.” Um, okay. If you say so.
(06 of11)
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We were kind of close: hot springs. And, as it turns out, that grey face is not an Easter Island Statue or Squidward's house. It's called a Moyai and it represents this real statue.
(07 of11)
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This guy turns out to be a construction worker – but still no explanation for his slumber.
(08 of11)
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The party line is “meat on bone,” but we still think this looks like the thingie in Pebbles Flintstones’ hair.
(09 of11)
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*deep breath* Here we have “high-speed train,” “high-speed train with bullet nose,” “light rail,” “metro,” “train” (as in plain ‘ole), “tram,” “station,” and “mountain railway.” Not pictured: the absolutely superfluous 9th train variation, "steam locomotive."With regard to our airborne friends: only the first is an aerial tramway; the other two are “suspension railway” and “mountain cableway,” respectively. So we weren't TOO far off.
(10 of11)
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Wow. So, it’s a “moon-viewing ceremony,” for the Japanese Otsukimi harvest celebration. It all makes so much sense now! Color us myopic.
(11 of11)
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This is a “pine decoration,” popularly displayed for the Japanese New Year, (SEE?!) but we still think it kinda looks like Emerald City.
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