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🦞 Lobster, Crayfish

🦞

🦞 is about status, wealth, luxury, but also about complete helplessness in internet slang .

🦞 Meaning and main associations

This emoji is a true chameleon. It can mean diametrically opposed things depending on the context:

Status and Wealth: Lobster is an expensive delicacy. It is used to denote luxury, expensive restaurants, elite vacations, and large sums of money ("we live in luxury").
Food: Literally lobster meat, lobster steaks, candlelight dinner.
Red: Because of its bright scarlet color (when cooked), it is used to indicate redness, embarrassment (to turn red as a lobster), or sunburn.
Nautical theme: Ocean, seafood, coastal cities (Maine in the USA, European coast).
Astrology: This is the unofficial symbol for the zodiac sign Cancer (an alternative to the regular crab 🦀) because of its claws.

And here's where the fun begins. 🦞 has several completely crazy meanings in internet culture:

Helplessness (The Lobster Theory): In esports and gaming slang, there's the term "Lobster" —a player lying on the bottom (dead) and helplessly twitching their claws (hands/nails) . The phrase, "I'm already a lobster, lying there and twitching my legs," signifies that you've lost and are completely helpless.
Hipsters and unconventional relationships: Thanks to Yorgos Lanthimos's film "The Lobster" (2015), 🦞 has become a symbol of people who don't fit into society's norms, loners, or those looking for a partner "to spite the system."
Incels (Men's Movement) Slang: In internet subcultures (especially on Reddit), the term "Lobster" is sometimes used to describe aggressive men who are unable to find a partner and compare themselves to lobsters (supposedly lobsters are monogamous and fight for territory). This meaning is controversial, but it does exist.
Dumb but handsome: If you're called 🦞, they might mean you look expensive and classy, but act a little clumsy and stupid (because lobsters are clumsy).

Unicode version: 11.0 (June 2018).
Emoji version: 11.0 (June 2018).
An interesting detail: This is one of the few emojis that was added specifically due to popular demand from residents of Maine, USA, where lobster is a key symbol and economic staple. On all platforms, it's depicted as bright red (as if it's already cooked ), not blue-green (as it typically appears in the ocean).

Biological Immortality: Lobsters are practically biologically immortal creatures. They don't age, don't lose fertility, and grow throughout their lives. They die only from disease, predators, or their own weight (which makes it difficult for them to molt). Scientists call this neglectable senescence .
Blue Lobster: The odds of finding a live blue lobster in the ocean are 1 in 2 million. That's why it's RED in the emoji—because that's what you see on your plate.
Blood: Lobster blood is colorless, but turns blue when exposed to air due to the copper content (hemocyanin).
Knockout Claw: If a lobster loses a claw, a new one will grow in its place after a few molts.

🦞🧈🍋 — The perfect dinner: lobster with butter and lemon.
🦞💰 — "Hit the jackpot" or an expensive restaurant (the cost of one lobster can reach $100+).
🦞🛌😫 — Feeling like a lobster at the bottom (tiredness, burnout).
🦞🏝️ — An expensive resort, the Maldives or the Caribbean.
🦞📉 — A "red day" on the stock exchange (shares fell to zero).
🦞🤝🦞 — The famous "Claws" gesture (a greeting in some memes, like "Rock and Roll", but with claws).

High-end restaurants and food delivery: Banquet menu sections, steakhouses, premium seafood (like Maine lobsters).
Marine biology websites and aquariums: Where they talk about deep-sea creatures and crustaceans (and about biological immortality).
Gaming websites and forums (eSports): In threads where they discuss unsuccessful moments, defeats (lying on the bottom).
Dating sites (ironically): For singles in the style of the movie "The Lobster".
Blogs about real estate and luxury vacations: For example, oceanfront villas or yachts.