Clippy (1997)

About

Clippit (aka Clippy) is the default animated character in the English version of Microsoft Office Assistant, an interactive user’s guide that came pre-installed with Microsoft Office bundles. But due to its impractical and intrusive nature, Clippy quickly became a subject of mockery among Office users and inspired a series of satirical images and parodies addressing its overall incompetence.

Office Assistant

Embodied in a paperclip with googly eyes and expressive eyebrows, Clippy was designed to serve as a user-friendly troubleshooter in using Office applications. For instance, typing an address followed by “Dear” would cause Clippy to pop up (often with painfully long delay in loading) and say:

While the idea behind this feature may have been novel and amusing, it was widely regarded as a failure by many users, developers and tech reviewers alike. The OA feature was first introduced with Office 97 and permanently disabled after Office 2003.

Origins

• To no one’s surprise, Windows developers were among the first to recognize Clippy’s shortcomings and spread jokes about this abysmal feature. In October 1998—less than a year after OA was introduced in Microsoft Office 97, the corporation’s product managers held a public “execution” of Clippy and demonstrated how to get rid of it using a Visual Basic code at a developers’ conference. Upon execution, the paper clip said, “I’m melting, I’m melting” and then disappeared. Despite its premature “death”, the joke went on for years afterwards.

• In July 2000, Clippy appeared in the popular web comic User Friendly.

• In 2000, Microsoft made a series of animated adverts featuring Clippy, which can be found here

Evolution

• By 2004, Clippy found its own Urban Dictionary entries.

• It also reached YTMND; http://paperclip.ytmnd.com/ by user Malk in May 2004 was one of the first instance, gathering about 2,500 views. There are other YTMNDs on Clippy, including the Clipdance.

On Youtube

In 2007, CollegeHumor made a video featuring Clippy:

Another cameo appearance in a Window/Matrix parody by CollegeHumor from 2009:

Here are some other parodies:

Clippy’s Blank Templates