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After 24 hours of pointless deliberation and collective buffoonery on social media, reports surfaced early Sunday morning that Oklahoma fans have filed a trademark application for the eyeball emoji. You know, the one that has been used on Twitter by everyone since the beginning of time? Yeah, that’s the one!
The controversy began when Oklahoma State men's basketball head coach Mike Boynton sent out this cryptic tweet, which features the emoji in question:
It's happening.... .
— Mike Boynton (@thacoachmike) April 14, 2018
As you can tell from the replies to Boynton’s tweet, Sooner fans everywhere felt the need to establish their territory as rightful owners and proprietors of the emoji.
DOES OSU encourage being the little follower ? Or is it just in the water in Stillwater
— Charlie O (@Charlie_Okc) April 14, 2018
This is an Oklahoma thing dawg. Stealing and shit
— BoomTownSooner (@SoonerBorn33) April 14, 2018
Let's talk about it.
— The Angry Sooner (@TheAngrySooner) April 15, 2018
No one was mad at you. You were laughed at because you did what pokes always do. Follow the leader. you don't set your own trend. you do what others are doing. No one claimed ownership of the emoji. They laughed at u copying its use in a recruiting sense.
Head coach, and alleged creator of the emoji, Lincoln Riley, spoke to reporters regarding the filed trademark.
“I don’t give a flyin’ fart about the emoji. Put that in your little article. Makes me wanna puke,” Riley said.
We haven’t gotten word yet on whether or not Mike Gundy plans to issue a cease and desist for infringement of his intellectual property.
As Riley left the press area, one of our cameramen caught a glimpse of Riley’s orange iPhone 5C background. Through a FOEA (Freedom of Emoji Act) request, we have obtained this screen grab.
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We reached out to Bob Stoops’ statue for further comment on the matter, but it looks weird, and is yet to return our call.