--- title: Viral News Show on Emoji Meanings description: A news station decided to help decode the darker meanings of emojis, and the Internet is having a field day with the broadcast. canonical: https://time.com/4659528/emoji-meanings-news/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-03T17:36:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:40:46.349Z og:title: Watch These Newscasters Try to Explain Hidden Emoji Meanings og:description: Watch these earnest newscasters attempt to find the hidden, sinister meaningsThe internet can't stop laughing about it. og:url: https://time.com/4659528/emoji-meanings-news/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch These Newscasters Try to Explain Hidden Emoji Meanings twitter:description: Watch these earnest newscasters attempt to find the hidden, sinister meaningsThe internet can't stop laughing about it. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Internet Can't Stop Laughing About These Newscasters Trying to Explain Emoji  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 3, 2017 5:36 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Feb 3, 2017 5:36 PM UTC A news show is learning the hard way to consult young people before they air a special about their lingo. Because parents are deservedly concerned about getting lost in translation when it comes to their kids’ [emoji-filled text messages](http://time.com/2993508/emoji-rules-tweets/?iid=sr-link4), Seattle’s [Q13 Fox News](http://q13fox.com/2017/02/01/emoji-codes-what-kids-know-parents-dont/) put together a news segment on trying to decode the [ever-expanding library](http://time.com/4354417/new-emoji-additions/?iid=sr-link2) of pictorial images, which continue to be [extremely popular](http://time.com/4114886/oxford-word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/?iid=sr-link9). They touched on serious issues facing young people like cyberbullying, but the internet being the internet decided that some of their on-air translations of the “secret code,” were perhaps more of a stretch than others. “If it’s a fox, that could mean, ‘Let’s go sneak out of the house’… as parents, we can look at these and have no idea, but this could lead to cyber bullying,” the broadcaster explained earnestly. They then considered the pink hibiscus flower emoji. “This could mean drugs,” he continued. What about a frog? “It could mean, you’re ugly—I’m telling you you’re ugly.” In a tweet that’s now gone viral, Twitter user @Bry\_Nap shared the short news clip—and sarcastically asked the world who “snitched” about these hidden meanings. Emoji-fluent responses of disbelief have been flooding in. Sometimes, it seems, a flower is just a flower. > [](https://twitter.com/Bry%5FNap/status/827030557758349312) > [](https://twitter.com/%5FNoRegretzz/status/827121793882214400) > [](https://twitter.com/StayliveB/status/827278536033439749) > [](https://twitter.com/NeverHappii/status/827272009713274880) Of course, who’s to say if the kids are right and the adults are wrong? Emoji are notoriously open-ended. > [](https://twitter.com/monicarobillard/status/827225472241106946) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4659528/emoji-meanings-news/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4659528/emoji-meanings-news/"},"headline":"The Internet Can't Stop Laughing About These Newscasters Trying to Explain Emoji","datePublished":"2017-02-03T17:36:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:40:46.349Z","description":"They're lost in translation.","url":"https://time.com/4659528/emoji-meanings-news/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Social Media","Technology","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4659528/emoji-meanings-news/","name":"The Internet Can't Stop Laughing About These Newscasters Trying to Explain Emoji"}}]}] ```