In 2001, to promote the release of Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft launched a web advertising campaign focused around the much-reviled Microsoft Office Assistant Clippy and his demotion to being switched off by default. In the campaign, Clippy (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) is forced to accept the truth that nobody likes him and is now effectively out of a job. Three Flash-animated shorts - "Clippy Gets Clipped", "Clippy Goes Undercover" and "Clippy Faces Facts" - were released on the now-defunct officeclippy.com
website along with a Flash game called X-tract Paperclip.
Clippy also made a live apperance at the Office XP launch event on May 31, 2001, where he details what he's been up to since being kicked out of Microsoft Office.
Tropes featured in this campaign:
- Adaptational Personality Change: Clippy goes from the Blank Slate he was in previous versions of Office to a obnoxious, snarky character here. Also doubles as Adaptation Expansion as there wasn't really much to work with.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After Clippy is told he's needed back at the office, he jumps at the opportunity to start working again. We then cut to Clippy, who has now been bent out of shape, being used to eject a floppy disk before being left overnight in the office, still stuck in a computer tower.Clippy: Hello? Hello? I think that did it, I think it's out! Hello?! ...Okay, I think I'm just gonna hang out here for a while.
- Butt-Monkey: Clippy is this mixed with Hate Sink. He's hated by office workers and even his own family. There's even a game where you can take out your anger on him!
- The Cameo: An Xbox controller arrives at the bar to inform Clippy of his fate. Also counts as Shameless Self-Promotion, as the Xbox was only just out at the time.
- Camera Abuse: In "Clippy Goes Undercover", the camera lens cracks after Clippy - disguised as a pair of glasses - is smacked off of the man's face he was resting on straight into the camera.
- Circling Birdies: A strange variation pops up at the end of X-tract Paperclip - after Clippy is bonked on the head by a falling push pin, his eyebrows merge and then split into three copies which begin fluttering around like birds, complete with tweeting sound.
- Deadpan Snarker: Clippy, fittingly for a character voiced by Gilbert Gottfried. If you miss him in X-tract Paperclip, he will mock you for doing so.Clippy: That was pretty easy but it's gonna be harder than that to get rid of ol' me, maybe XP can tell you what to do!
- Determinator: Clippy will stop at nothing to try and get back into Microsoft Office and win the public's adoration.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Clippy does this in "Clippy Faces Facts", after it is implied that he's been kicked out by his own family.
- Dysfunctional Family: Clippy's family is this, though it's hinted that Clippy himself may be the source of the tension.
- Failed a Spot Check: In "Clippy Goes Undercover", Clippy hides in a potted plant trying to influence a conversation between two office workers to convince them not to upgrade to Office XP. They hear Clippy's voice but trace it to the plant itself and thus "fire" the plant by throwing it out, having no idea that Clippy is still hiding in it!
- Fun with Acronyms:
- Clippy is convinced that the "XP" in Office XP stands for "Ex-Paperclip".
- The accompanying Flash game is called "X-tract Paperclip" and even has the appropriate letters highlighted on the title screen.
- Furry Reminder: A rare inanimate object version in "Clippy Faces Facts" - during the dinner scene, when Clippy's family eats dinner, the food falls through them straight to the floor. The same thing happens later again when Clippy drinks a beer.
- Hollywood Magnetism: In the Office XP launch event, Clippy is dragged off stage Vaudeville Hook-style with a giant magnet.
- Interspecies Romance:
- During the Office XP launch event, one of the things Clippy talks to the audience about his "brief passionate love affair" with a human woman.
- In "Clippy Faces Facts", it's revealed that Clippy's sister is dating a staple remover.
- Mythology Gag: Clippy's first spoken words are "It looks like you're writing a letter, would you like help?"
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In "Clippy Goes Undercover", Clippy uses his Voluntary Shapeshifting ability to poorly disguise himself as a telephone receiver, a woman's hat and a man's glasses and gets caught each time.
- Reactive Continuous Scream: Happens in "Clippy Goes Undercover" after Clippy, disguised as a woman's hat, blows his cover by taking a compliment for the woman about her "hat". The woman and her coworker freak out and start screaming and then Clippy joins in.
- Self-Deprecation: The campaign is basically Microsoft's apology for creating Clippy in the first place.
- Self-Duplication: According to X-tract Paperclip, Clippy is capable of this. In the final level you have to defeat not one, not two, but five Clippies by throwing push pins at them.
- Sound-Effect Bleep:
- An annoyed office worker calls Clippy a "little metallic [bleep]" in "Clippy Gets Clipped".
- A conversation between two men about Office XP in "Clippy Goes Undercover" features the line "...and it doesn't have that [bleep]-ing paperclip".
Clippy: But I kinda like that [bleep]-ing paperclip! - Suddenly Voiced: Clippy gets an official speaking voice courtesy of Gilbert Gottfried after years of only communicating through textboxes.
- Take That!: Microsoft Bob, an earlier Microsoft assistant program with a poor reputation, gets compared to Clippy as "the most annoying thing in computer history" by an office worker that Clippy has ticked off.Clippy (flattered): You know Bob? He's a friend of mine!
- This Is My Story: Clippy opens the Office XP launch event by filling in the audience about what he's been up to since Office XP put him out of work. He's tried different careers, he's sought counselling and even had a brief but passionate relationship.
- Visual Pun: In "Clippy Faces Facts", the mouse that can be briefly seen inside a Mouse Hole is a computer mouse.
- White Flag: Clippy waves one after being defeated and buried under a pile of push pins at the end of X-tract Paperclip.
