The American Microsoft cofounder who became a multi-format internet meme figure through the 2010s, spanning the Dreamy Bill Gates advice animal, the Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates webcomic, and a viral 1994 chair-jumping clip.

Where did Bill Gates come from?

As a meme, he was built up from a 1994 Connie Chung interview clip uploaded to YouTube in 2008 and a series of 2010 and 2011 image formats on humor blogs, Reddit, and Tumblr.

What does Bill Gates mean?

In meme use, Gates is shorthand for tech-nerd energy, awkward on-camera moments, and the internet's split feelings about billionaire philanthropists.

How do you use Bill Gates?

People typically caption the young-Gates-over-a-computer photo with Microsoft or coding puns for the Dreamy Bill Gates format, or drop the chair-jump clip as a reaction to any surprise physical stunt.

Is Bill Gates still popular?

The main Gates meme formats built up between 2010 and 2014 and are now internet-classic material, with the chair-jump clip alone passing 2.1 million YouTube views by early 2014.

Bill Gates

2010personalityclassic

Published August 16, 2026

Bill Gates, the Microsoft cofounder, became a recurring internet meme figure through the early 2010s via a string of distinct formats: Dreamy Bill Gates advice animals, Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates webcomics, and a resurfaced 1994 clip of him hurdling an office chair on live TV. His December 2013 Reddit Secret Santa and February 2014 front-page AMA folded him into the same meme culture that had built up around him.

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Overview

Bill Gates is the American Microsoft cofounder who became a recurring internet meme figure through the 2010s, less through one iconic format than through several: an advice animal called Dreamy Bill Gates, the Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates webcomic series, and a much-reshared 1994 clip of him leaping over an office chair on live TV1.

Around and between those specific formats, online joke culture about Gates keeps flipping between mocking his wealth and defending his philanthropy, with the same person cast as either a shady tech mogul or a saintly ex-CEO depending on who's telling the joke3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Sad and Useless / Reddit / Tumblr (viral spread)

Date

2010

The earliest recognizable Bill Gates meme was the Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates webcomic, a multi-panel strip built from photos of the two on stage during the D5 All Things Digital conference on May 31, 2007. It was first published on the humor blog Sad and Useless on May 16, 20102. The chair-jumping clip predates the webcomic in raw form: in a 1994 Connie Chung interview Gates cleared an office chair on cue after being asked about the rumor, and YouTube user buzzert uploaded the footage on June 26, 20081.

How It Spread

The chair video sat mostly unnoticed for years, then went viral in fall 2011 after Buzzfeed and UpRoxx wrote it up, passing 2.1 million views by January 20141. Dreamy Bill Gates started in the same window: Reddit user ALottaHOOPLA posted the first captioned image to r/AdviceAnimals on December 30, 2011, and a Tumblr blog dedicated to the format, sexybillgates, launched the next day to collect Microsoft- and computer-themed puns on the image2.

Gates then engaged directly with the platforms that memed him. He joined Reddit's annual Secret Santa gift exchange in December 2013 and sent his match a stuffed cow, a copy of Journeys of a Lifetime, and a Heifer International donation, posting a photo to prove it was really him. His front-page Reddit AMA on February 11, 2014 drew more than 30 answered questions on topics from personal growth to who he wanted to see play him in a biopic2.

How to Use This Meme

For Dreamy Bill Gates, people typically drop the young-Gates-over-a-computer photo into an advice-animal template and add captions built around Microsoft, coding, or awkward-nerd flirtation puns. The chair-jump clip is more often used as a reaction video or GIF, dropped into any thread where someone unexpectedly performs a physical feat.