I occasionally drop the little man into my email conversations as a surrogate emoticon (I figure if I'm subtle enough about planting my whiffs of urbanity and pretense, people will start to believe them long before realizing what a jerk I am), but have come up wanting when trying to express real enthusiasm (yes, I've heard of the telephone). I went searching recently for an animated "applause" gif of some kind, and found few well-designed ones of a manageable file size except this guy:
And so goes the saying about necessity and invention: The best way to make something great is to take something pretty cool that someone else worked really hard on, improve it slightly, and call it your own. And then exclaim, "I just couldn't help myself!"
So, I present "my" Wilder Applause Little Man, aka six stars.
The hand action (and apparent perspiration?) is a little more frenetic when loaded in a browser than it appeared on my own computer, and it's my good fortune that his hands are nowhere near his lap, because I'm too lazy to tinker with it further.
The animated version also helps eradicate any ambiguity about the connotation of the icons for the uncultured (the first time I saw Little Man, it was a tiny "five-stars" Wild Applause Little Man, and I asked something along the lines of "what are you trying to imply with the little man on the toilet?").
People who hate the Little Man will likely resent any of his further evolution or forced memery, and those who love him, probably including the Estate of Warren Goodrich if he was fortunate enough to retain some kind of rights and royalties, will no doubt resent the dilution of his former dignity and authenticity, presenting a lose-lose situation for me, if I wasn't so busy being self-congratulatory about the success of my first attempt at an animated gif.
This little guy qualifies as a decent animated gif under the terms of the Shortlist of Hallmarks of a Good Animated Gif (cultivated by me in my recent timewastery), which is another discussion, but I can thus sleep at night despite having had my way with someone else's imagery. Plus, I just couldn't help myself. And on that note, I will probably move on to the whole set of icons, once I figure out how to animate an empty chair in a way that doesn't lend it any undue personality.
Further reading
http://www.sfbaydiscounts.com/409/san-francisco-chronicles-little-man/
http://www.austinkleon.com/2008/09/19/the-little-man/
And what to do if applause is precisely what you don't need?
http://ericalesaint.blogspot.com/2011/04/steaming-pile-of-trouble.html
