Basic Smiley-Knowledge

In December 1963 Harvey Ball sat down at his desk. He drew a circle, painted it yellow, added 2 dots with a semicircle below ... and "Smiley" was born. Originally the work was created for a small firm to give their employees a "morale boost" by showing the smiling face on a pin.

The pins were also handed out to the firm's clients and soon became a big hit, appearing everywhere. Only a few years later Smiley was known worldwide. To learn the whole story from the best source, visit the Homepage of Harvey Ball.

Other artists, less ingenious than Harvey Ball, have tried to "improve" the design and to adapt it for several products and messages, but except for a few modifications to the original they all stuck to the basic elements ... yellow circle, 2 dots, semicircle. Nowadays Smileys are more or less omnipresent in the web. Normally, though, they appear in one of the three "classical" types, which are these ......

The original and ancestor of all Smileys silently smiles, either at someone or about something - depending on your point of view.

The first mutation of the original Smiley was this type, a "Laughey" rather than a smiley.

The "Animated Smiley" is capable of both - smiling and laughing.

There are several spellings used for our little smiling friend, such as "Smilie", "Smily" or "Smiley". Harvey Ball (and he ought to know) always names his child "Smiley". I also prefer the "-ey" at the end, just for one reason: It allows me to name all the different creatures to be found on Zero's Pages with an "-ey". Consequently the plural has to be "Smileys". This particular grammatical rule will not be neglected on this website, though, a lot of others will occasionally

Don't believe me that these things are just as Satanic as the colour yellow? Just because they look so cute and innocent it doesn't mean that they are harmless, in fact, it's quite the opposite! Because they looks so cute and innocent they can be extremely deadly and vicious! B'whahaha!

Want to nail some Satanic Smiley Faces Big time? Go here: Luke's Secret Smiley Face Fire-Away Site

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