Emoji Slowly Turning

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Part of a series on Emoji. [View Related Entries]

About

Emoji Slowly Turning refers to a series of videos showing 3D Emojis slowly spinning toward the viewer, often accompanied by eerie or distorted sound effects. The original appears to have come from TikTok in June 2021, although the exact origins are unclear. There are a number of spinning emoji videos ranging from smiley faces to other expressions and characters.

Origin

On June 14th, 2021, TikToker^[6] @arrowfnf posted a video of a slowly rotating emoji without an expression on its face, just eyes, gaining over 6,000 views in four months (shown below). This appears to be an original animation and the first known rotating Emoji video.

Spread

On July 6th, 2021, Twitter^[5] user @usergoesbrr posted a video of a 3D Shocked Emoji turning toward the viewer with a dramatic sound effect underneath (shown below).

The earliest known upload of a slowly turning Emoji video posted to YouTube^[1] was on July 8th by pee, and shows the Smiling Emoji slowly turning, gaining over 543,000 views in three months (shown below). The video is titled "Stan Twitter: Emoji slowly turning." It is unclear who originally posted it.

A number of new and edited spinning emoji videos were uploaded to YouTube in the following months. On July 20th, 2021, YouTuber^[2] Evidant posted a version of the video where the Emoji transforms into other Emojis as it spins (shown below).

[This video has been removed]

On September 28th, YouTuber^[3] Roblox Dude posted a version of the smiling Emoji turning with FNAF music added, gaining over 2,500 views in a month (shown below, left). On October 1st, YouTuber^[4] Sebastian poopeater posted an edit of the smiling Emoji turning with concrete scraping sounds added, gaining over 13,300 views in two weeks (shown below, right).