Is it possible to use django-emoticons from the views instead of in templates?

[mhb11]

If a view is setting a string as a context variable for a template, is it possible to use django emoticons within the view (to embed emoticons within the string) instead of from the template?

I have a niche use-case where this is a requirement - I'm otherwise using Django emoticons quite successfully in my entire project. Would be great to get an illustrative example from you if this is possible.