See-No-Evil Monkey 🙈
Copy & Meaning

The see-no-evil monkey emoji, depicting a monkey covering its eyes with both hands. This emoji is used to express 'don't want to see,' 'see no evil,' or shame/embarrassment. Common usage includes 'Shouldn't have seen that🙈' 'See no evil🙈' or 'Embarrassing moment🙈' Added in Unicode 6.0 in 2010, the design is based on one of the 'Three Wise Monkeys' (see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil) at Nikko Toshogu Shrine in Japan.

The Three Wise Monkeys' teaching ('see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil') derives from a moral teaching in Confucius's Analects, meaning 'it's better not to see bad things.' On social media, it's used for situations like encountering scenes you don't want to see, reactions to witnessing failures, friends' embarrassing moments, or not wanting to watch horror movies. Recently, younger generations widely use it on social media comments and reactions to express moments like 'oops, I saw that,' 'awkward situation,' or 'cringe moment.'