Home / Shrug kaomoji / ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
¯\_(ツ)_/¯Shrug kaomoji
The internet's standard-issue “I don't know, and I've made peace with it.”
Click the face to copy it · also known as shruggie, smugshrug
What it means
The shrug is resignation with a smile on it. It closes a sentence rather than opening one — you use it when the explanation is unavailable, unnecessary, or not worth the argument. Unlike a plain “idk”, it carries a shade of amusement: the speaker isn't distressed by not knowing. That tonal difference is why it survived long after most emoticons were replaced by emoji.
Where each character comes from
Every kaomoji is borrowed type. None of these characters were designed to be part of a face.
| Char | Code point | Unicode name | Role in the face |
|---|---|---|---|
| ¯ | U+00AF | MACRON | The raised arms. Two of them, one on each side, held level. |
| \ | U+005C | REVERSE SOLIDUS | Left forearm. This is the character that causes trouble — see below. |
| ( | U+0028 | LEFT PARENTHESIS | The face outline. |
| ツ | U+30C4 | KATAKANA LETTER TU | The face itself: two eyes and a wide crooked grin. Read as “tsu” in Japanese; borrowed here purely for its shape. |
| / | U+002F | SOLIDUS | Right forearm, mirroring the backslash. |
The face is the Japanese katakana ツ (tsu), which happens to look like a smirking face with the mouth pulled to one side. The arms are macrons and slashes — no special characters, no emoji. That is precisely why the shrug spread so far: it is built entirely from characters that existed on ordinary keyboards decades before emoji, so it renders identically on a 1990s terminal and a modern phone.
How to type it without breaking it
Copy it — don't type it. Many chat clients, code editors and forms treat the backslash as an escape character, which silently eats the underscore that follows it and leaves you with a broken ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Pasting the complete string sidesteps the parser entirely. If a platform still mangles it, type a second backslash (¯\\_(ツ)_/¯) and let the escape consume the spare one.
When to use it
Answering a question you genuinely can't answer. Acknowledging a decision that was made above your pay grade. Ending a debate you no longer wish to be in. It reads as light and unbothered, so avoid it when someone wants a real answer — the same character that makes it charming makes it dismissive in the wrong thread.
Variants of the shrug kaomoji
Same idea, different mood. Click any to copy.
FAQ
Why does the shrug break when I type it?
What does the ツ mean?
Other faces worth knowing
The kaomoji with names of their own — each one with its own page.