It's a scream how easy it is in PHP of all things:

 function is_palindrome(string $str): bool { return $str === implode('', array_reverse(grapheme_str_split($str))); } $palindrome = 'satanoscillatemymetallicsonatas'; $polar_bear = "\u{1f43b}\u{200d}\u{2744}\u{fe0f}"; $palindrome = str_replace($palindrome, 'y', $polar_bear); is_palindrome($palindrome);