Possible Clues:

• Grinning symbols
• Happy-face symbols
• :-) :-) :-)
• --- People, Le Carré novel; emojis with happy faces
• Happy characters
• John le Carré’s “___ People”
• "___ People" (Le Carre novel)
• They combine colons and parentheses
• Some Australian exports
• Twain's gambler's emoticons, perhaps