Coppy
Coppy was an animated copy machine character that appeared on Tumblr dashboards on April 1st, 2015, as part of the platform's April Fools' Day prank. A parody of Microsoft's infamous Office Assistant "Clippy," Coppy cycled through absurd and oddly personal messages that won over users so completely that its removal at midnight sparked an outpouring of fan art, memorial posts, and genuine mourning across the platform.
TL;DR
Coppy was an animated copy machine character that appeared on Tumblr dashboards on April 1st, 2015, as part of the platform's April Fools' Day prank.
Overview
Origin & Background
How It Spread
How to Use This Meme
Coppy wasn't a user-created meme format in the traditional sense. It was a site-wide feature that only existed for one day. The community response, however, did follow recognizable patterns:
- Screenshot and share: Users typically captured Coppy's rotating messages and posted them as image sets, often adding commentary about their emotional attachment to a cartoon copier. - Fan art: Artists drew Coppy in various scenarios, with the most viral being memorial-style art after its removal. - Tribute posts: Users wrote short eulogies or "in memoriam" posts treating Coppy's disappearance like a genuine loss.
The Coppy reaction became a template for how Tumblr users engage with temporary site features and joke characters, treating them with an intensity that outsiders often find baffling.
Cultural Impact
Fun Facts
Microsoft's original Office Assistant was codenamed "TFC" during development, which stood for "That Fucking Clown".
The original Clippy was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in Microsoft's 2001 campaign promoting Office XP, which removed the feature by default.
CheerAndCosplay's tribute post was still being reblogged in 2021, six years after Coppy's one-day existence.
The Executive Suite 2016 included "guest blog posts from professionals" covering business topics, adding another layer to the corporate parody.
Coppy's fan art ascension image by Sowamemeski hit 24,000 notes in just two days, making it one of the most viral responses to a Tumblr April Fools' joke.
Frequently Asked Questions
References (8)
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- 4Coppy - Know Your Memeencyclopedia
- 5Office Assistantencyclopedia
- 6Coppy - Urban Dictionarydictionary
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