Who dare call these lil cuties ugly? (Photo: I am Cal)

In a feud that will surely go down in the annals of Internet history, the so-called father of emoticons, professor Scott Fahlman, has decided to take issue with the emoticon's livelier cousin, the emoji. And on the 30th birthday of the emoticon, no less.

Professor Fahlman is widely credited with creating the modern day smiley face emoticon. "I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: :-)", he wrote in a 1982 email, solidifying his place in history for pounding out a few symbols on a keyboard one day. We should all be so lucky.

But now, all that fame and glory seems to have finally gone to his head.

"I think they are ugly," Professor Fahlman recently told The Independent regarding emojis, those multicolored icons that tweens now use in lieu of actual words. "They ruin the challenge of trying to come up with a clever way to express emotions using standard keyboard characters."

Hey Professor Fahlman, how's this for a clever way to express emotions using a keyboard?

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Though, before we get ahead of ourselves, Professor Fahlman did acknowledge his bias: "But perhaps that's just because I invented the other kind," he admitted.

Ugh. Fine.

 ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)