Be Like Clippy
29 comments
·November 29, 2025NietTim
canyp
Yes, I see the same flaw in the argument. Retrospectively looking back and saying it was good because it didn't do any of the shit companies do today; but, really, it wasn't as bad as it could be because the technology just wasn't there to begin with. Counter-factual either way, but calling it "good" is a stretch.
xandrius
Interesting how many people in a hacker forum seem to be so pro-establishment and instead try to denigrate the goals of this initiative because of the chosen character. I guess that's how many earn their dollar after all?
Sure, if it had been today, Clippy would have been evil but that's the point, it wasn't back then. Why are we so accepting of the change?
amarant
Clippy was pretty universally hated back in it's day though. The way it just refused to let you do anything without it's help was annoying.
People complain about getting AI shoved down their throats. Clippy was worse in this regard. At least AI doesn't have a dancing animated character that eats up half your processing power with it's silly animations.
hfsh
This clippy white-washing is annoying as hell. Just like clipppy was.
prism56
Clippy would have absolutely having sold your data if Microsoft were forethinking enough.
chemotaxis
Most importantly, Clippy happened before computers were permanently online. For it to harvest any data, I guess you'd need to mail in a floppy disk.
SteveJS
My grandmother loved clippy.
Melinda French Gates back when she was Melinda French had a part in Clippy.
“Melinda French (then the fiancée of Bill Gates) was the project manager of Microsoft Bob”
Microsoft Bob is where Clippy was born.
Reference: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-life-death-mic...
shayway
Looking forward to the "Be Like ChatGPT" site 20 years from now.
0xbadcafebee
Apparently this is a movement started by Louis Rossman (Clippy meme explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xAGUrkDsj4) to protest the fact that the world feels like a dystopian hellscape run by evil corporations and greedy politicians. He's not wrong, but it's kinda felt that way since the 70s (see the movie Network for reference)
This is strange, because for those of you who aren't old enough to remember the ambient noise in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G_uCbKoG5A), you won't know that Clippy was infuriating. But I guess the choice is controversial, which someone popular on YouTube knows will get lots of discussion. So... cool?
For fun: Clippy being annoying on Family Guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPeKsBmqlZs
poly2it
Is it just me, or does something feel wrong about the comments on this post? Where is the intellectual commentary? Clippy, the movement, is obviously not the same as the assistant.
slurrpurr
It is based on the assistant. If you pick something that doesn't represent your ideals well, of course your "Idol" will be attacked.
gdelfino01
It is not just you. This is sad. Not one mention of right to repair, right to own, privacy etc.
lillecarl
Be like clippy, entirely useless and annoying?
ImHereToVote
Yes. As opposed to sleazy and exploitative.
Lammy
The assistant's name is Clippit, not Clippy.
ghm2180
A most forward thinking Bayesian network consumer product ever.
yosito
Clippy was Microsoft was absolutely DO sell your data.
Clippy was never open source or "good" in any way, it not selling your data was a result of its time, not a conscious choice by its creators. The entire forced clippy "movement" is incredibly poorly thought out