We all remember the iconic day when the new iPhone update gifted us with tons of new emojis, (we’re still obsessing over the unicorn & taco emojis!) and, recently, an app was created to give us Kim Kardashian emojis to send to our group chats.
Ben Gillin is an American designer who had some strong feelings about society’s unhealthy obsession over the Kardashians, mainly Kim. When he saw that there was a set of emojis made for her, he decided to find a new “Kim” to recreate via tiny cartoon caricatures, according to The New York Times.
These emojis, available to download as an app, were made to mock the Kim Kardashian emojis. Gillin wanted to show how ridiculous he felt her image was by replacing her with another Kim, Kim Jong-un. The emojis show the North Korean ruler doing some of the same things Kardashian did in her emojis. He’s seen crying, laughing, and even pictured as a full body character.
One of the emojis features former N.B.A. star Dennis Rodman, who claimed he became friends with Kim Jong-un after singing him “Happy Birthday” at a basketball game back in 2014.
Jong-un and Kardashian share more than a name—They share being ridiculed on the internet as well, and Gillin chose to use that to his advantage. In recent years, Jong-un has become a sort of on-going joke on the internet. This seemed to peak when the movie The Interview came out in 2014 and based its entire plot around making fun of North Korea and its ruler.
As hilarious as these emojis are, they should be seen while keeping Gillin’s intentions in mind. He didn’t create them to honor Kim Jong-un, but rather to show how outrageous he feels it is to idolize a person for the wrong reasons, to the extent that there are emojis of them.
“Kim Jong-un is obviously a terrible person, but in some respects what the Kimoji app is doing to society is also terrible,” Gillin told the BBC.
So, do you agree with Gillin—Are emojis for celebrities taking it a step too far?