The impeachment inquiry gave the peach emoji new life
There was a sharp increase in the number of peach emojis used on Twitter Tuesday.
The emoji, used as both a fruit and sexual innuendo, was being used to comment on the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. “IM🍑MENT,” as Lizzo put it.
Peach emoji usage jumped from about 1,100 tweets every 10 minutes just before 5 p.m. ET to about 2,000 tweets every 10 minutes an hour later, after Speaker Pelosi announced the inquiry, per Trendsmap, which tracks Twitter trends.
Lizzo's tweet was the top 🍑 tweet on Twitter in the past 24 hours, and in the same time period, more than 16,000 tweets used “IM🍑MENT.” The tweet that received the most peach emoji replies was Trump’s “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” tweet, according to Trendsmap data.
“The double meaning of emojis adds to the playfulness of it,” said Emmett Soldati, the owner of Teatotaller, a cafe in Somersworth, N.H., that put up a billboard last year promoting peach bubble tea that read “Did Somebody Say Im🍑ment?”
Soldati told Yello the fact the emoji is used to represent butts means “there’s an exposure angle to it.” He also said he noticed a generational divide between younger people who understood the billboard and older people who didn’t.
“We had people who were like, ‘What does ‘imment’ mean?,’” he said.
The peach’s orange color plus the fact its leaves can be swapped out for hair is another reason the fruit is a favorite for artists depicting Trump. On Etsy, you can buy im🍑ment-themed pins, stickers, shirts, posters, and mugs that mash up peaches with the president.
Artist Edel Rodriguez used a peach Trump for an illustration on a March 2019 cover of Time magazine. And Need to Impeach, the pro-impeachment campaign backed by billionaire activist and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer, used a peach with Trump hair in signs spotted in Miami before the first Democratic debate.
Though the announcement of an impeachment inquiry gave the peach emoji new life, don’t plan on it losing its other alternative meaning anytime soon. On Instagram, the peach hashtag is a Trump-free zone and #im🍑ment has fewer than 100 posts. Searching 🍑 on Twitter is a NSFW experience.
An analysis by the emoji dictionary Emojipedia in December 2016 found 33% of tweets used 🍑 as shorthand for butt, 27% had a sexual connotation, and 13% were in reference to squats and fitness.
Even on Tuesday, 🍑 was paired most often with emojis known for their double entendre, including 🍆, 💦, 🔥, and 😈. The top unique URLs used with the emoji were all from OnlyFans, a social media service popular with adult performers.