Have you seen the bee emoji used for "please"

March 28, 2024 2:56 AM

Have you seen the bee emoji used for "please", and if you have, what city/country are you in? People on my local Buy Nothing group use the bee emoji for "please", and I am wondering how widespread this is.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries to Computers & Internet (23 answers total)

🦗!

(that means, "no, never").
posted by Klipspringer at 3:22 AM on March 28

I have never seen this in Ontario, Canada.
posted by synecdoche at 3:39 AM on March 28

Maybe this is an obvious observation, but could this be a variant of cockney rhyming slang? Bees/please. Haven't encountered it in Chicago, USA, but we're also light on cockney rhyming slang in general.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 5:50 AM on March 28 [5 favorites]

I could definitely buy "beeeeees" standing in for "pleeeease" but also: https://medium.com/@EmoticonMaster/bee-emoji-meaning-unraveling-the-symbolism-of-aab334ef4a17 might have some hints.

(The ones that stuck out to me are "diligence" and "teamwork," which might resonate with a Buy Nothing group.)
posted by adekllny at 6:03 AM on March 28

Huh, I was wondering if "would you be(eee) so kind" or similar was a common expression where this happens.
posted by trig at 6:11 AM on March 28

Never seen that usage and would not understand it without being told the meaning.
posted by Mournful Bagel Song at 6:28 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]

Never knowingly seen this useage in the East End of London. Might have missed it plenty of times though as bees do crop up on messages.

Just correcting that this isn't a variant of cockney rhyming slang. A variant of cockney rhyming slang would be using 🐝 to mean money (bees and honey = money).

If you wanted to concoct a cockney rhyming slang emoji for please, it would have to be the front half of a phrase in which the second half rhymes with please.

So 🥓 would work (bacon and cheese = please). If you really want to keep bees, perhaps 🥫 (jam and bees = please).
posted by einekleine at 6:42 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]

Haven't seen it in Los Angeles.
posted by bluesky78987 at 7:23 AM on March 28

I've never heard this, suspect it might be a localised meme or personal tic - like one former acquaintance who used "v" in text messaging in place of "the" (who I can only assume didn't hear the distinction between th and v sounds), and seemed to think this was a totally normal, understandable and parseable way to text even though I have literally never seen anyone else make the same connection.
posted by terretu at 7:24 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]

Could it be some variant on “Queen”? Addressing the person who might give them something/pick up their item?
posted by music for skeletons at 7:46 AM on March 28

Might also be helpful to post a few specific example sentences from different people so we can see what this looks like in practice.
posted by music for skeletons at 7:47 AM on March 28

Response by poster: A recent example:

"Love to be considered please [name] 🐝🐝🐝"
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:56 AM on March 28

Maybe it is like a honeybee foraging for honey (ie, free stuff)? Also have not seen this usage in our local Buy Nothing in Massachusetts.
posted by dreamphone at 8:12 AM on March 28 [1 favorite]

To address the question directly, I've never seen this. However, I thought I would attest to Buy Nothing groups having localized language. I recently moved from NYC to Oakland, CA. In NYC (or at least in my neighborhood) 'PPU' meant 'pending pickup'. Here, 'PPU' seems to mean 'porch pickup', but everyone treats it as self-evident and I haven't asked directly to confirm, so I don't know! How they communicate "this is spoken for", I don't know.
posted by hoyland at 8:12 AM on March 28

Never seen this in my neighborhood buy nothing group in Seattle
posted by Jacqueline at 8:18 AM on March 28

Tell it to the Bees Could be an iteration of this custom.
posted by effluvia at 8:57 AM on March 28

One other possibility. Depending on how widespread it is amongst the messages, it could possibly be a rendering discrepancy. The posters are using a different emoji on their systems that is showing up as bees on yours. I know this isn't how emojis are supposed to work, but I have definitely seen it in action...
posted by birdsquared at 10:10 AM on March 28

Haven't seen this, but my first thought was "bees rhymes with please" and "bees are a great model of cooperation like we are in Buy Nothing."

Also, I'd read your example in my heads as something like,
"Love to be considered please [name] bees" which quickly goes to
"Love to be considered please [name] please"
posted by bluedaisy at 11:44 AM on March 28

Never seen it and I am also in Australia.
posted by deadwax at 2:17 PM on March 28

I've not seen anything like that meaning "please" (from US Pacific Northwest).

It could be that whoever is using it just likes bees, or thinks the rhyme is cute.
posted by Aleyn at 2:35 PM on March 28

"If you consider me, you'd just be the bees knees!" ??
posted by tristeza at 2:36 PM on March 28

I'm in Brisbane and have never seen that anywhere. If someone posted a comment with a bee emoji I'd assume they were a Beyonce fan or an overly enthusiastic apiarist.
posted by Jilder at 1:31 AM on March 29

I am very active in my Buy Nothing group (in the US) and follow trends in emoji use in general, and I have never seen this.

My only other thought is that it kinda feels like cutesy babytalk kind of thing to say "bees" for "please," so maybe someone imported it from a parenting forum where that kind of thing is done for fun, and others just jumped on the bandwagon?
posted by desuetude at 8:11 PM on March 29