After a week-long search, I finally found out what ))<>(( means. It
was awesome.
The whole story started when I saw this magic sequence of inconspicuous ASCII chars on Reddit. Well, I thought, it’s probably a new forum thing I didn’t yet hear of, and just read on.
Later, the same day, I saw the sequence on Signal vs
Noise too. And then I had to know.
Now, try to google what ))<>(( means! The only search engine that
allows for non-alphanumeric searches I know of is Google CodeSearch,
and it only found old Pascal sources.
I started asking around in some IRC channels, but no-one knew. I
asked some friends, and they didn’t know either. One thought it was a
fish (I know that as <°((><, which seems to fit better), one thought
it was a Star Wars Tie-fighter, and one was reminded of Goatse.
If he knew how close he was…
Anyway, yesterday chrissturm of Ruby-Stammtisch Wien fame told me he figured it out.
<chrissturm> chris2: dieser smiley ))<>(( ist aus dem film
me and you and everyone we know
And suddenly I saw the light! I had known this for a long time actually (it’s not the first time something like that happens to me).
I instantly knew what it meant: Poop back and forth.
Either you know chuckle, because you saw the movie (or heard of), or you probably make a very stunning to disgusted face. I wish I could see it.
So let’s disclose the riddle: I knew the movie was by the fantastic Miranda July, but I didn’t remember all forums and blog comments the magic sequence appeared in were talking about her newest site about her latest book, noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com (which by the way probably is the best and most captivating website for the first half of 2007).
Now, she directed (and played) in the movie, which contains this interesting coprophiliac sexual act… quoting Wikipedia:
Peter: What should we write…
Robby: I want to poop back and forth.
Peter: What? What does that mean?
Robby: Like I’ll poop into her butthole and she’ll poop it back… into my butthole and then we’ll just keep doing it back and forth. With the same poop. Forever.
What ideas these six year olds have. Anyway, it perfectly fits to the
ASCII representation, no? ))<>((. I bet you can see the
butt-cheeks.
Ultimate proof is this t-shirt, which unfortunately isn’t sold anymore.
It’s always amazing me how two seperate streams of consciousness suddenly merge into a great enlightenment. Forever.
NP: Jeff Buckley—Grace