Clippy is dead. Long live Clippy.
After battling for years with a default setting by the ill-boding name of “off,” Clippy finally succumbed to the forces of progress earlier today. With today's introduction of Office 2007 Clippy is officially gone (unless there's an Easter egg in there somewhere).
Clippy, real name Office Assistant, made his debut in Microsoft Office 97 with such clever quips as “it looks like you're writing a letter, would you like help?” and other words of endearment. Fans loved Clippy, as evidenced by this famous video (video - NSFW).
Sporting Great Gatsby-esque eyeballs and eyebrows only Groucho Marx could really justify, Clippy was born to parents, er, parent “Bob” sometime in 1996. Bob, who retired early after winning the coveted “worst product of the decade” award from CNET.com, now works as a facial model for the “nerd smiley” in MSN messenger.
Young Clippy had a shamanistic bent and apparently enjoyed shape-shifting (among other less printable proclivities). Clippy was also know to take forms such as The Dot, F-1 (a robot), The Genius, Mother Nature, Scribble (a cat) and Power Pup.
For the time being memories of Clippy will remain in legacy versions of Microsoft Office. He will be missed. Clippy declined to comment for this story saying, “I don't know, it doesn't look like you're writing a letter.”
