Revenge has never looked so cute. After Kathryn Kidd’s neighbors reported her to city officials for illegally renting out her Manhattan Beach property on Airbnb, she received a hefty fine. To get payback, Kidd decided to paint her house bubblegum pink and hired a muralist to add giant emojis to the front of the home. Now, the neighbors are more pissed off than before, having to deal with what they call a “mocking” eyesore.
They’re most perturbed by the emojis — one has its tongue sticking out, the other has a zipper for a mouth, and both have massive eyelash extensions.
“I’m trying not to offend anybody,” Kidd told Easy Reader News on August 1st. “I did it for the purpose of being happy, being positive, and I think it’s cute and quirky and kind of funny, and certainly was a time for the emoji.”
Although Kidd said the mission was not to offend anyone, the Los Angeles Times caught wind of a different story. The artist who completed the project, named Z the Art, uploaded a photo of his work to Instagram with the original caption, “Are your neighbors constantly ratting you out? Have they cost you thousands in fines? Why risk a case when you can send them a pretty message?”
That caption has since been deleted, the Times reports.
[fm_instagram url=”https://www.instagram.com/p/ByJZ6EkgQ2e/”]
Kidd’s neighbor Susan Wieland told Easy Reader that she actually wept when she saw Kidd’s pink house. “It’s definitely directed at me,” she told the publication. “Every day I get up, I’m so depressed. I can’t look outside. I feel like I’m being bullied, frankly, by her.”
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1158800065177280515″]
“That word keeps coming up to me: she’s a bully, and she feels she is entitled,” Wieland continued. “She just wants to make things uncomfortable for us.”
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/SouthSeaGold/status/1158888417238736896″]
It should be noted that Kidd does not live in the home in question, and has agreed to only do long-term rentals in the future. “I just wanted to send a message to be happy, be colorful, be positive, and enjoy,” she told Easy Reader. “Everything doesn’t have to be gray.”
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/GurayMatter/status/1158858446122487808″]
Unfortunately for Wieland, Kidd has gone through all the appropriate channels to make sure her new paint job is entirely legal. It looks like the emojis are there to stay.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/TreeHorseMusic/status/1158863851158409216″]
And judging by the response on Twitter, people really are Team Emoji. Sure it’s bright, but the design isn’t really offensive.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/chronicallyyfab/status/1158886380950286336″]
If all the houses are gray…then what exactly is the “character of the neighborhood?” Hm…
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/valdez310/status/1158802156830388224″]
We’re getting Footloose vibes from this whole thing. Anyone else?
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/ChronicallyRavn/status/1158861899687239680″]
Life is short. Do what you want to do — as long as you’re not *actually* hurting others.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/Wren1692/status/1158868714764341248″]
Perhaps Kidd’s neighbors should direct their frustration to other issues. To them we say…
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/R0bbiePhillips/status/1158907729554968577″]
It’s a pink house. There are truly worse things in the world.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/sdelladonna/status/1158862763340341248″]
Her petty technique is obviously working. And TBH, it’s kind of inspiring.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/Ms_Bontemps/status/1158890082402594816″]
Like, when you think about it, none of the face emojis are truly offensive. No, not even the poop emoji. Sorry, not sorry.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/ToroksTravels/status/1158859271703949313″]
We’re going to need an example. We’re just a bit boggled.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/MafiaSpin/status/1158858281135280128″]
Honestly…true. Well said.
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/mbrekkie/status/1158866935263531008″]
What are your thoughts on the pink Emoji House?
We’d happily stay there as part of a long term rental agreement any time.
And interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time an emoji has garnered controversy…
Apple’s Bagel
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/jeremyburge/status/1051967143808516096″]
Apple users were so saddened by the lack of topping on Apple’s bagel emoji that Apple recently caved and announced it would put cream cheese on the updated bagel emoji via the new iOS 12.1 update.
Cream cheese giant Philadelphia even got in on the fight,organizing a petition to put schmear on the naked bagel. The company didn’t get their goal of 30,000 signatures, but 1,200 cream cheese lovers signed the petition and got their wish.
Google’s Cheeseburger
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/baekdal/status/924312294439444480″]
When the above tweet — which drew attention to the fact that Google put the slice of cheese under the burger (like, wtf) — went viral, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai saidhe would bring it up in a Monday meeting to poll the office to see which burger-building method reigned supreme. Google eventually righted its wrongdoing — and thank goodness for that.
The Phallic Eggplant
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/durex/status/803297432826089473″]
The famous eggplant emoji has become synonymous with “penis.”
Condom company Durex even uses it in their advertising. The use of the eggplant emoji became so problematic that Instagram actually banned the eggplant emoji in 2015 after dudes started posting borderline NSFW content strategically using the eggplant emoji.
The Banana
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/loopytarantino/status/1120495927939219456″]
Yes, the banana emoji can be, and has been, used in lieu of the eggplant to ahem…resemble a certain…ahem…thing.
Some Instagram users were actually upset that Instagram forbid the eggplant emoji from being used on the platform, but allowed the banana to have free rein. But hey, the eggplant has simply risen above the banana, and that is just fact.
Facebook’s “Feeling Fat” Emoji
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/tonyocruz/status/575782642735435776″]
When Facebook hopped on the emoji bandwagon, they released a “feeling fat” emoji in 2015.
Users were so put off by the embarrassedly stuffed smiley, feminist group Endangered Bodies put together a petition to take the emoji off the listand received over 16,000 signatures. The hashtag #FatIsNotAFeeling went viral and Facebook ultimately took the emoji down.
Apple’s Chinese Food Takeout Box
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/mingcheau/status/916917077285490688″]
When Apple teased the new Chinese food takeout box emoji in 2017, food blogger Ming-Cheau Lin pointed out that the chopsticks sticking out of the top of the box represented death.
She said so because the chopsticks’ placement looks more like incense sticks used in Chinese culture to honor the dead. Furthermore, Lin said that leaving chopsticks sticking out of food like that is completely disrespectful. Unfortunately, after the box design was submitted, it was out of the artist’s hands to change the look.
[facebook_ia_ad_tag adid=”2″]
The Taco Emoji
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/soska/status/1052611820375105536″]
Although the taco emoji has come to be used as a sexual symbol of sorts, there’s actually a more pressing controversy surrounding it.
When Taco Bell — yes, Taco Bell — created and won their petition to get a taco emoji in 2014, the world was given a hard shell taco, “the stuff of American family taco [night],” as MUNCHIES’José R. Ralat wrote in 2016. Many argued that it should have been a traditional Mexican soft taco, or that they at least should have given users taco options. A 2016 Apple update softened up the shell, but taco lovers still want more.
Apple’s Peach
[fm_twitter url=”https://twitter.com/freckledbutt/status/793298101456867328″]
Pre-2016, Apple’s peach emoji looked more like a butt than a piece of fruit.
So obviously, emoji users used the peach to symbolize a butt. Apple tried to thwart the sexualization of its innocent emojis in its iOS 10.2, but we were already well-versed in emoji lingo by then. The update didn’t stop us from using it as a butt.
Read more on So Yummy here.
