David Tennant wants more explicit emoji to replace aubergine

Just when we thought the aubergine emoji – and its meaning – had reached global saturation point along comes someone who has no idea what it stands for. It just happens that on this occasion, that person is former Doctor Who David Tennant.

He revealed his naivety about the vegetable’s double meaning while on the Graham Norton sofa this week, and asked Apple (albeit jokingly) to do something about it.

“I thought emojis were just meant to represent what they represented. I didn’t realise there was this whole other language you had to learn. Adding, “Apple needs to move forward and just call a vagina a vagina.”

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The comments raised laughter from the audience and incredulity from his companions, none of which could believe that he had someone managed to not know until that point the double meaning behind the emoji.

“You have a smartphone, right?” asked Norton. To which the Scot conceded he did. “Then I can’t help you.”

The Scottish actor explained how his emoji illusions were shattered when watching a workplace information film. “I had to watch a video and it takes you through what’s acceptable and not acceptable in the workplace, and right at the end it takes you through how to communicate on your mobile phone and says ‘remember the eggplant emoji is not just an eggplant’ and that’s it.”

He looked flabbergasted at this, adding, “I was left going what the f*ck is an eggplant. It’s an aubergine, right? and I knew nothing about this there’s a whole language, usually based around food stuffs, where they represent other things. Asking someone out for a taco could be easily misinterpreted it turns out. Did you know about this?” he asked turning to Michael Sheen.

“YES, OF COURSE! Where have you been?” bellowed the Welshman.

Tennant was on the show with Michael Sheen to talk about their roles in Good Omens, Neil Gaiman’s fantasy drama, which landed on Amazon Prime yesterday.

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Also on the sofa, were Chris Hemsworth, Gloria Estefan and the Jonas Brothers, who performed their single Sucker.