[chuckadams]

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);