Russell Turpin:
The smiley is an attack on writers and readers alike. If it is funny, it doesn’t need a smiley. If is not funny, a smiley won’t help it. The smiley teaches writers that anything they write will pass as humor as long as it is punctuated properly. It teaches readers that they must ignore their better judgment, and look only at punctuation to determine intent.
Wikiquotes erroneously attributed that quote to Jim Showalter but a check with Google Groups reveals it was posted on Usenet by Russell Turpin in 1991.
