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Memes

The origins of the Holy Moly! emoji

Holay molay!

Photo of Angela Andaloro

Angela Andaloro

yellow smiley face with 'Holy Moly!' speech bubble

The Holy Moly emoji, also known as Holay Molay, is a wide-eyed yellow emoticon that exclaims ‘the phrase ‘Holy Moly!’ in a speech bubble over its head. With origins in the early days of the internet, the simple smiley has joined the legion of memes calling back to yesteryear.

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Origins of the Holy Moly emoji

The Holy Moly emoticon first appeared on Smiley Central in 2003. The gif shows a wide-eyed and open-mouthed yellow emoji with a speech bubble over its head displaying the phrase. The animated emoticons were popular to use in different sites, often forum-based one.

When the website was shut down in 2012, it seemed to be the end of many unique ways of online expression. Just a year later, however, the Holy Moly emoticon was added to the Symbols & Emoticons for Facebook.

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holy moly emoticon
Smiley Central

In 2017, Holy Moly appeared on a new mobile app called Talking Smileys Emoji. For the first time, a voice was given to the phrase. In July 2021, @ouchjake on YouTube deep-fried version of the sound.

holy moly deep fried
Smiley Central

In the early 2020s, Holy Moly enjoyed some meme success during the popularity of low-quality memes. As it spread to TikTok in 2023, the format became frequently paired with silly cat videos.

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holy moly
@chris_c_760/TikTok

The audio went viral on TikTok, quickly becoming a popular sound. Since then, both the emoji and the sound has spawned many meme iterations.

Meme examples

holy moly cat
@chris_c_760/TikTok
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holy moly green gun
@pootis423.-_ /IMGFLIP
cats holy moly meme
@pootis423.-_ /IMGFLIP
holy moly nico nextbot meme
@pootis423.-_ /IMGFLIP
holy moly song
@pootis423.-_ /IMGFLIP
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In Body Image
u/ihatemylife42785/Reddit
'me being mad at him but trying to control what i say bcuz im really in a healthy realtionship and he is literally the loml'
u/ihatemylife42785/Reddit
holy moly big boobs megaman legends
u/ihatemylife42785/Reddit
'Me after my friend did the griddy infront of the class'
u/ihatemylife42785/Reddit
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butters holy moly meme
@hhutaocrops/TikTok

More emoji memes:

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