Starship captain, Shakespearean thespian, and real-life knight Sir Patrick Stewart lends his gravitas to The Emoji Movie—out today—as the voice of Poop, a debonair dump. We traced the poomoji’s rise from B-list BM to No. 1 number two.

June 1984

Japanese manga series Dr. Slump debuts Poop-Boy, a chattering pile whose coiled design will influence the future soft-serve emoji.

September 2000

Telecom company KDDI launches the first unchi emoji—Japanese for poop.

October 2008

Google introduces an animated load orbited by flies for Japanese webmail users. Poo: big in Japan.

April 2015

Software company SwiftKey reports that Canadians deploy the ordurous emoji more than anybody else.

December 2015

The emoji’s popularity is explosive; Google trades its fly-swarmed turd for the more approachable grinning swirl.

November 2016

An election year splash: Pranksters plop a beaming poop emoji onto Trump’s campaign website.

January 2017

Sony announces Sir Patrick Poo-ert—err, Stewart—as Emoji’s dark horse. Director Tony Leondis says he sought “the perfect upper-crust gentleman.”

July 2017

The Emoji Movie premieres starring James Corden (Hi-5), Sofia Vergara (Flamenca), and newbie Jude Kouyate in his breakout role, Poop Junior.

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