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When Office XP launched in about 2001 Microsoft had a comedy microsite all about Clippy being forced to retire (the angle being that XP was so easy to use he wa

When Office XP launched in about 2001 Microsoft had a comedy microsite all about Clippy being forced to retire (the angle being that XP was so easy to use he was no longer needed). It was entirely based around the idea that everyone was sick of clippy. They had a couple of flash animations (the contemporary equivalent of a viral video), recorded here for posterity. Clippy was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu_Pzuwy-JY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu_Pzuwy-JY Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82KZG3Zy8xU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82KZG3Zy8xU Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAsV6_AawVw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAsV6_AawVw Remains of microsite here: https://web.archive.org/web/20031009044305/http://www.microsoft.com/office/clippy/ https://web.archive.org/web/20031009044305/http://www.micros... There was also a downloadable blues-type song which was titled 'it looks like you're writing a letter', I can't find it anywhere now but it was pretty good edit: found the song! its at 1:01:35 in this video: https://youtu.be/8bhjNvSSuLM?t=3690 https://youtu.be/8bhjNvSSuLM?t=3690

jchw 3y ago
Clippy played by Gilbert Gottfried? That was not on my bingo sheet. Compared with the Windows 95 video guide with Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry, you can really feel the different era of both Microsoft and maybe even social climate between them. > flash animations (the contemporary equivalent of a viral video) Heh. It's kind of hard to boil down what flash animations really were in essence anymore, isn't it? Clearly it's obsolete now, but something about limitations really does breed innovation.
perryprog 3y ago
Wow, I'd never seen those before. As far as ads go, those seem really stand-out—seriously creative, and even self-deprecating for the sake of promoting XP.
clydethefrog 3y ago
They even made a fun flash game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4M0wHmWm8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4M0wHmWm8

jchw 3y ago

Clippy played by Gilbert Gottfried? That was not on my bingo sheet. Compared with the Windows 95 video guide with Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry, you can really feel the different era of both Microsoft and maybe even social climate between them. > flash animations (the contemporary equivalent of a viral video) Heh. It's kind of hard to boil down what flash animations really were in essence anymore, isn't it? Clearly it's obsolete now, but something about limitations really does breed innovation.

perryprog 3y ago

Wow, I'd never seen those before. As far as ads go, those seem really stand-out—seriously creative, and even self-deprecating for the sake of promoting XP.

clydethefrog 3y ago

They even made a fun flash game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4M0wHmWm8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb4M0wHmWm8