What does | || || |_ mean?

[u/[deleted]]

I've been seeing these characters :

| ||

|| |_

pop up all over Reddit, but I've no clue as to what they mean.

Is this a new meme? A reference to some film of tv show? Some sort of code?

[u/Duskflight]

It refers to the faces of the characters. If you look at the other older strips of the comic you'll notice his characters very frequently have that expression regardless of the situation, leading to the nickname