Fix list of emoticons with a single name
    to a list for easier future iterations,
    and cast iterables to list.

def cast_to_list(emoticons_list):
    """
    Fix list of emoticons with a single name
    to a list for easier future iterations,
    and cast iterables to list.
    """
    emoticons_tuple = []
    for emoticons, image in emoticons_list:
        if isinstance(emoticons, basestring):
            emoticons = [emoticons]
        else:
            emoticons = list(emoticons)
        emoticons_tuple.append((emoticons, image))
    return emoticons_tuple