See-no-evil Monkey Emoji

The See-no-evil Monkey emoji 🙈 shows a monkey covering its eyes with both hands, and it means "I can't look," "I refuse to see this," or "this is too embarrassing to watch." People use it to express shyness, cringe, mock shock, or a playful refusal to acknowledge something awkward, scandalous, or spicy.

What Does the See-no-evil Monkey Emoji Mean?

The 🙈 emoji means the sender is covering their eyes to avoid seeing something, whether that is embarrassing, shocking, awkward, or simply too much to handle.

The image is a brown monkey with a tan face and both hands pressed over its eyes. Because the face is hidden, the emoji reads as a gesture more than an emotion, and the emotion depends entirely on context. It can signal embarrassment ("I can't believe I said that"), bashful flirtation, secondhand cringe, or deliberate denial.

Its roots lie in a well-known visual tradition. The emoji is one of three "three wise monkeys" characters, drawn from a proverb that urges people to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. The Unicode Consortium's name for it, SEE-NO-EVIL MONKEY, preserves that link, and the Japanese name for the first monkey in the set is Mizaru, which appears in this emoji's keyword list.

Key Facts at a Glance

• Codepoint: U+1F648
• Shortcode: :see_no_evil_monkey:
• Category: Smileys & Emotion
• Unicode version: 6.0
• Emoji version: 0.6
• Skin tone support: No, since it depicts an animal

Where Does the See-no-evil Monkey Come From?

The See-no-evil Monkey emoji comes from the "three wise monkeys," a famous visual proverb that pairs three monkeys with the ideas of not seeing, not hearing, and not speaking evil.

In the original proverb, the monkey covering its eyes represents refusing to look at wrongdoing. The monkey covering its ears represents refusing to listen to it, and the monkey covering its mouth represents refusing to speak of it. Emoji keeps all three as a set, and you can find the other two on the Hear-no-evil Monkey and Speak-no-evil Monkey pages.

Online, the meaning has drifted far from its moral origin. The proverb is about virtue, but the emoji today is mostly about humor and awkwardness. Few people sending 🙈 are thinking about ethics; they are thinking about how embarrassing, shocking, or ridiculous something is.

What Does 🙈 Mean in Texting and on Social Media?

In texting and on social media, 🙈 most often means embarrassment, bashfulness, or a playful "I can't handle this."

The same emoji carries several distinct tones depending on the sentence around it:

• Embarrassment: admitting something silly, such as a typo, a bad haircut, or an old photo.
• Shyness or flirtation: reacting bashfully to a compliment or a cute message.
• Secondhand cringe: reacting to something awkward someone else did or said.
• Ignoring or avoiding: signaling that you are staying out of a conflict or refusing to look at bad news.
• Mock shock: reacting to gossip or a spicy reveal with exaggerated "I can't look" energy.

Notably, 🙈 is almost never used to express genuine distress. It keeps things light, which is why it fits so well in friendly chats, comment sections, and captions where the writer wants to soften an awkward admission with humor.

How Do You Use the See-no-evil Monkey Emoji?

You use the 🙈 emoji by placing it after a statement that is embarrassing, awkward, or too much to look at, so it signals the feeling without extra explanation.

Here are a few realistic examples:

• I just replied to the group chat instead of my boss 🙈
• Found my old middle school yearbook photos and I cannot look 🙈
• You really didn't need to buy me dinner, stop 🙈

Position matters a little. At the end of a sentence it works as a sheepish aside. On its own as a reply, it acts as a quick reaction to gossip, a cringe video, or a risky message. Repeating it (🙈🙈🙈) raises the intensity, usually to show you are laughing, blushing, or overwhelmed.

Using 🙈 for Humor and Deflection

The monkey is also a reliable way to dodge a topic with a joke. If a friend asks whether you finished a task you obviously did not, a single 🙈 says "no comment" in a way that is funny rather than defensive. It lets you acknowledge the awkwardness without explaining it.

Which Emojis Pair Well With 🙈?

The best emojis to pair with 🙈 are those that reinforce the embarrassment, laughter, or shyness you want to convey.

• 🙈😂: embarrassed and laughing at yourself. The Face With Tears Of Joy emoji is a natural partner.
• 🙈😭: dramatic, exaggerated cringe or "I'm dying." See the Loudly Crying Face.
• 🙈🥹: bashful and touched at once, such as after a sweet compliment. Try the Face Holding Back Tears.
• 🙈😊: shy and happy, a gentle blush. The Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes suits this well.
• 🙈🙉🙊: the full set, used for "I saw nothing, heard nothing, said nothing."

The complete trio is especially popular for jokes about secrets, gossip, and staying out of drama. Sending all three together usually reads as playful rather than serious.

How Does the See-no-evil Monkey Emoji Look on Different Platforms?

The 🙈 emoji looks like a monkey covering its eyes on every major platform, though each vendor draws the fur color, hand shape, and shading a little differently.

Support is broad and long-standing. According to the platform data for this emoji, it is available on Apple from iOS 6.0 and macOS 10.7, on Google from Android 4.3, on Microsoft from Windows 8.0, on Samsung from One UI 1.0, on WhatsApp from version 2.17, and on Twitter through Twemoji 1.0. Because it was added in Unicode 6.0, nearly every current device displays it correctly.

Since the design differs slightly between systems, the same message can look a touch cuter or more cartoonish depending on the recipient's phone. The core meaning, a monkey with hands over its eyes, never changes, so there is little risk of the emoji being misread because of platform differences.

When Should You Avoid the See-no-evil Monkey Emoji?

You should avoid 🙈 in serious or formal situations where a playful, deflecting tone could come across as dismissive.

• Sensitive news: replying 🙈 to someone sharing a real problem can feel like you are brushing it off.
• Professional emails and formal messages: the emoji is casual and can undercut a serious tone.
• Accountability conversations: using it to answer a direct question about a mistake may read as avoiding responsibility.
• Cross-cultural contexts: some readers may know the three wise monkeys proverb and read the emoji as "willful ignorance," which can sound pointed if you are talking about wrongdoing.

In casual chats with friends, the risk is low. At work, it is generally fine in a lighthearted team channel when joking about your own small blunder, but a plain sentence is safer for anything that matters.

How Is 🙈 Different From Similar Emojis?

The 🙈 emoji differs from face emojis because it communicates through a gesture and an animal character rather than a facial expression.

Compared with the Smileys & Emotion faces, the monkey adds a layer of playfulness and distance. A blushing face tells the reader how you feel directly, while the monkey says "I'm hiding from this." It also differs from its siblings: 🙉 is about not wanting to hear something, and 🙊 is about saying something you should not or keeping a secret. You can browse more expressive options in the Smileys & Emotion category.

How Do You Copy and Paste the See-no-evil Monkey Emoji?

You can copy the See-no-evil Monkey emoji by clicking the copy button on this page, then pasting it anywhere with Ctrl+V on Windows or Cmd+V on Mac.

One click copies 🙈 to your clipboard, ready for text messages, social media posts, emails, documents, and chat apps. On a phone, long-press in the text field and choose Paste. If you prefer to build whole messages out of emojis, the Emoji Translator turns ordinary text into emoji, and the trending emojis page shows what people are using right now. Copy 🙈 above and drop it into your next message.