This “23333” code is a very precise way to say that we are laughing, and it has a rather astonishing story.
A little detour to China
The “23333” was not born by chance. It finds its roots in Chinese web culture, more precisely on an old very popular forum called Mop. There, the Emoji number 233 represented a hilarious character, literally folded with laughter on the ground. Little by little, Internet users began to just type “233” to evoke this laughter. And as often on the internet, each additional degree of intensity … we add a figure. “2333”, then “23333”, to point out that there, we really laugh a lot. It is a code is similar to “hahaha” or “lol” (Laughing Out Loud) with us.
Today, this code is sometimes used on WhatsApp, especially by those who are familiar with the codes of Asian digital culture. It is fast, expressive, and visually evocative. Rather than looking for good words to say that we find something hilarious, just type a few numbers.
What that says about our online conversations
Codes like “23333” show how our online exchanges invented their own grammar, abbreviations, emojis … or figures. We go faster, but we remain expressive. It is a way of adapting language to the constraints of writing, while keeping emotion, tone, complicity.
But beware: these codes are not always universal. If your interlocutor does not know the reference, he may look at you. Hence the interest of understanding where these expressions come from because they are often responsible for a very specific cultural context.
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