Clippy

1997characterclassic

Clippy is the googly-eyed paperclip that Microsoft shipped as the default Office Assistant in Windows editions of Office starting in 1997. Users despised the constant unsolicited pop-ups so thoroughly that Microsoft turned its 2001 retirement into a mock corporate layoff campaign, and the character stuck around online as shorthand for intrusive, unhelpful software design.

microsoft memesvirtual assistant memestech humor memesdark pattern memesearly internet memes

Overview

Clippy, officially named "Clippit," is the animated paperclip that Microsoft shipped as the default Office Assistant in English Windows editions of Office starting in 19973. The character is a bent wire paperclip with two googly eyes and expressive eyebrows, best known for volunteering "It looks like you're writing a letter!" the moment a user typed "Dear" at the top of a document.

Clippy is remembered less as a working helper than as a case study in intrusive software design. Urban Dictionary bluntly defines it as "the annoying paperclip that Microsoft added to its program to make your life just that much harder"4. Microsoft itself eventually turned the paperclip into a joke, making Clippy the star of a 2001 Web marketing campaign that framed the character's retirement as a mock corporate layoff notice1.

How It Spread

Backlash inside Microsoft moved fast. At the 1998 Professional Developers Conference in Denver, product managers staged a mock public execution of the Office Assistant, running a Visual Basic snippet that made Clippy squeak "I'm melting, I'm melting" before disappearing3. In July 2000, the webcomic User Friendly ran an early Clippy parody as the character's reputation kept sliding online.

Microsoft turned the character's retirement into its own marketing beat for the 2001 launch of Office XP. The company built a mock layoff website where Clippy shopped around a resume, cast actor Gilbert Gottfried as its new voice, and ran an online poll asking the public to vote on the paperclip's next career as part of a $30 million ad push1. CNet's coverage noted that many Office customers were mainly wondering why Microsoft had waited so long to pull the plug on the assistant1.

Clippy stayed a punchline long after Office XP shipped. In May 2012, the startup Smore released Clippy.js, a JavaScript library that let developers drop the paperclip and its Office Assistant siblings Merlin, Rover, and Links into any webpage2. TechCrunch, in its coverage of the launch, floated ideas like phishing Clippy and NSFW Clippy as inevitable follow-ups to the port2.

How to Use This Meme

Most modern Clippy usage is nostalgic. People typically caption screenshots of the original Office Assistant window with fresh "It looks like you're writing..." lines aimed at whatever the joke's target is doing, or embed the actual paperclip on their own site using the Clippy.js JavaScript library2.

Frequently Asked Questions

Clippy

1997characterclassic

Clippy is the googly-eyed paperclip that Microsoft shipped as the default Office Assistant in Windows editions of Office starting in 1997. Users despised the constant unsolicited pop-ups so thoroughly that Microsoft turned its 2001 retirement into a mock corporate layoff campaign, and the character stuck around online as shorthand for intrusive, unhelpful software design.

microsoft memes virtual assistant memes tech humor memes dark pattern memes early internet memes

Overview

Clippy, officially named "Clippit," is the animated paperclip that Microsoft shipped as the default Office Assistant in English Windows editions of Office starting in 19973. The character is a bent wire paperclip with two googly eyes and expressive eyebrows, best known for volunteering "It looks like you're writing a letter!" the moment a user typed "Dear" at the top of a document.

Clippy is remembered less as a working helper than as a case study in intrusive software design. Urban Dictionary bluntly defines it as "the annoying paperclip that Microsoft added to its program to make your life just that much harder"4. Microsoft itself eventually turned the paperclip into a joke, making Clippy the star of a 2001 Web marketing campaign that framed the character's retirement as a mock corporate layoff notice1.

How It Spread

Backlash inside Microsoft moved fast. At the 1998 Professional Developers Conference in Denver, product managers staged a mock public execution of the Office Assistant, running a Visual Basic snippet that made Clippy squeak "I'm melting, I'm melting" before disappearing3. In July 2000, the webcomic User Friendly ran an early Clippy parody as the character's reputation kept sliding online.

Microsoft turned the character's retirement into its own marketing beat for the 2001 launch of Office XP. The company built a mock layoff website where Clippy shopped around a resume, cast actor Gilbert Gottfried as its new voice, and ran an online poll asking the public to vote on the paperclip's next career as part of a $30 million ad push1. CNet's coverage noted that many Office customers were mainly wondering why Microsoft had waited so long to pull the plug on the assistant1.

Clippy stayed a punchline long after Office XP shipped. In May 2012, the startup Smore released Clippy.js, a JavaScript library that let developers drop the paperclip and its Office Assistant siblings Merlin, Rover, and Links into any webpage2. TechCrunch, in its coverage of the launch, floated ideas like phishing Clippy and NSFW Clippy as inevitable follow-ups to the port2.

How to Use This Meme

Most modern Clippy usage is nostalgic. People typically caption screenshots of the original Office Assistant window with fresh "It looks like you're writing..." lines aimed at whatever the joke's target is doing, or embed the actual paperclip on their own site using the Clippy.js JavaScript library2.

Frequently Asked Questions