Does the emoticon go before or after the period?

lol.. As far as I know, thankfully, emoticons don't have any punctuation rules yet (but now that you have suggested it, wait till one of those insane English teachers see it and add it to our English Lang. course). Usually I don't use a period if I'm using an Emoticon, but if I had to choose I'd say it looks better after the period (the first one looks like a smiley with a freckle on the chin! Like this one: x___.x)