Not sure I can make it much cleaner than this : 

```
            // Create the sort icon container and clean previous any previous ones
            if($('.applet_chanlist .users_title').find('span').length == 0) {
                this.$('.users_title').append('<span class="chanlist_sort_users">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>');
            } else {
                this.$('.users_title span.chanlist_sort_users').removeClass('icon-sort-up');
                this.$('.users_title span.chanlist_sort_users').removeClass('icon-sort-down');
            }
            if ($('.applet_chanlist .channel_name_title').find('span').length == 0) {
                this.$('.channel_name_title').append('<span class="chanlist_sort_names">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>');
            } else {
                this.$('.channel_name_title span.chanlist_sort_names').removeClass('icon-sort-up');
                this.$('.channel_name_title span.chanlist_sort_names').removeClass('icon-sort-down');
            }

            // Push the new sort icon
            switch (this.order) {
                case 'user_desc':
                default:
                    this.$('.users_title span.chanlist_sort_users').addClass('icon-sort-down');
                    break;
                case 'user_asc':
                    this.$('.users_title span.chanlist_sort_users').addClass('icon-sort-up');
                    break;
                case 'name_asc':
                    this.$('.channel_name_title span.chanlist_sort_names').addClass('icon-sort-up');
                    break;
                case 'name_desc':
                    this.$('.channel_name_title span.chanlist_sort_names').addClass('icon-sort-down');
                    break;
            }
```