Whip-switch-whip is a known trick. The game will not let you whip more than half of a city's population at once. Suppose a city is size 3, has 20 shields in the box, and you want to whip a 60-shield temple. You can't do it directly, but you can change production to a 40-shield item, whip, change back to the 60-shield item, and whip again. It doesn't get you any extra shields, it just gets around one restriction. It's not related to mobilization in any way.
The "cartoony" smiley-face indicators in the city screen are from one of the graphics mods in the Civfanatics forum for graphic mods. I've had it so long I couldn't even tell you which one it is.