Plunger Emoji

A toilet plunger with a wooden handle and red rubber cup. Nobody saw this one coming when Unicode 13.0 dropped in 2020, but here we are: there's an emoji for your clogged toilet.

The literal use is obvious: plumbing problems, bathroom emergencies, and the eternal dread of hearing the water keep rising. But 🪠 has picked up a metaphorical lane too: unclogging problems, clearing blockages (mental or otherwise), and dealing with messy situations. "Time to 🪠 through my inbox" is a thing people actually type.

The Unicode proposal (L2/19-158) by Christian Krenek of Emojination made an unexpectedly charming case. It argued the plunger is "tied to indoor plumbing" and noted that the tool is also used in music, where brass players use a plunger cup as a mute to create the distinctive "wah-wah" sound in jazz. The proposal also pointed out that the plumbing profession had no emoji representation at all.

🪠 lives mostly in humor. It's the punchline emoji. On Twitter/X, it shows up in complaint tweets about landlords, home emergencies, and adulting disasters. "Just spent 45 minutes with the 🪠 and I think I need to call an actual plumber" is the vibe.

There's a small but growing use in "unclogging" metaphors: clearing creative blocks, pushing through procrastination, sorting out relationship drama. Productivity TikTok occasionally picks it up alongside 🧹 and 🧼 for "clean up your life" content.

In gaming communities, 🪠 gets some Mario-adjacent use, since Mario and Luigi are famously the world's most overqualified plumbers. But it's not common enough to register as a trend.

The Unicode proposal for 🪠 (L2/19-158) was submitted by Christian Krenek of Emojination in 2019. The proposal highlighted two distinct use cases: plumbing and music. In jazz, trumpet and trombone players use an actual bathroom plunger as a mute, holding it over the bell to create the iconic "wah-wah" sound. The proposal explicitly noted this dual identity.

But the real origin story of the physical plunger is stranger. It was invented in 1874 by John S. Hawley of Stapleton, Staten Island, New York. Hawley was a confectioner — a candy maker — who patented the device as a "vent-clearer" on December 19, 1874. He filed an improvement patent in 1876 adding a thickened rim for better suction. Hawley then went on to become a candy magnate, manufacturing chocolate cigars. The man who invented the tool everyone dreads using made his real fortune in chocolate.

Before Hawley's invention, clogged pipes were either cleared by hand, with rods, or by calling an actual plumber. The plunger's nickname "plumber's friend" has been in use since at least 1894 according to Merriam-Webster.

1. 1874John S. Hawley of Staten Island patents the plunger as a 'vent-clearer'↗
2. 1876Hawley patents an improvement: a thickened rim for better suction
3. 2019Christian Krenek submits Unicode proposal L2/19-158 for PLUNGER emoji via Emojination↗
4. 2020Approved in Unicode 13.0 and Emoji 13.0 (March 2020)↗
5. 2020Apple ships 🪠 in iOS 14.2 (November 2020)

• •The plunger was invented in 1874 by John S. Hawley, a New York confectioner who patented it as a "vent-clearer." He later became a chocolate cigar magnate. Candy to plungers to chocolate cigars is the wildest career arc in patent history.
• •A Kohler survey found 28 million American toilets clog per month. 63% of adults have clogged their own, and 90% of clogs are caused by using too much toilet paper.
• •The plunger's nickname "plumber's friend" has been in use since at least 1894. Merriam-Webster still lists it as a synonym.
• •Doctor Who's Daleks have had a plunger-like manipulator arm since 1963. In a 2023 special, the show finally explained its origin after 60 years.
• •In jazz, an actual bathroom plunger is used as a trumpet mute to create the "wah-wah" sound. The Unicode proposal for 🪠 specifically cited this musical use.
• •The US faces a shortage of 530,000 construction workers in 2026. Median plumber salary is $62,970, with industrial pipefitters and master plumbers earning $100K-$200K.

• •Super Mario Bros. — Mario and Luigi are the world's most famous plumbers, though they rarely do actual plumbing. Shigeru Miyamoto chose the profession because the game's underground pipe-filled levels needed a character who'd belong there. The 2023 animated film grossed $1.36 billion worldwide, making plumbing the most profitable fictional career in cinema history.
• •Doctor Who's Daleks — The Dalek's manipulator arm has looked like a plunger since 1963. After 60 years, a 2023 Children In Need special finally explained why: the Doctor accidentally broke the original claw and grabbed a plunger from the TARDIS as a replacement. Davros liked it and made it standard.
• •Jazz plunger mute — The distinctive "wah-wah" sound in jazz brass comes from musicians using an actual bathroom plunger over the trumpet bell. It's been a standard technique since at least the 1920s. Miles Davis preferred the similar Harmon mute, but the plunger mute remains a staple of big band and jazz arrangements.

• •U+1FAA0U+1FAA0. Part of Unicode 13.0 (2020), Emoji 13.0. No variation selector needed.
• •Shortcode: :plunger::plunger: on Slack and Discord.
• •Older devices (pre-2020 OS) will show a missing character box for 🪠. It was one of 117 new emojis in the 2020 batch.

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