Novelty doesn't mean fun, it could have been a joke because the work of scientific research is literally finding novelty, that which is new, pushing boundaries of knowledge, etc.

Novelty can increase enjoyment which can imply that the activity is "fun" (though not all enjoyable activities can be categorized as "fun").

However, using the context clues, I surmised that the original poster, that is the one who enjoys seeing emojis being used as bullet points in literature produced by his colleague, finds this to be "fun".

Is that pedantic enough? AM I GOOD ENOUGH???? WILL YOU LOVE ME NOW DADDY?