Ever wondered about the birth of the emoticon? Of course you have! We always figured it was conceived in the back of a Toyota 4-by-4 after one too many brewsky's. But apparently, it was actually invented by some random Carnegie Mellon professor, during a discussion about the "limits of online humor" which was, contrary to what the subject matter denotes, devoid of any humor content whatsoever.

Fahlman posted the emoticon in a message to an online electronic bulletin board at 11:44 a.m. on September 19, 1982, during a discussion about the limits of online humor and how to denote comments meant to be taken lightly.

"I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)," wrote Fahlman. "Read it sideways."

Unbelievable! Who knew there were online electronic bulletin boards in 1982??* In any event, we're sick and tired of emoticon guy grabbing all the credit. It's a computerized smiley face people, big frickin' deal. That said, we propose the inventor of the following character sequence: 58008 (read it upside down) be given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

*We thought Al Gore didn't invent the information superhighway until sometime in the early nineties. Confusing!