"Many users found its polite but presumptuous suggestions invasive, obnoxious, and creepy."

"But to those involved, directly and indirectly, with what’s been called one of the worst user interface rollouts in tech history, Clippy’s comeback is varying degrees of bewildering and vindicating."

"The team of academics and Microsoft managers settled on a dog named Rover as the default character to guide users through “Bob,” a name chosen to signal approachability."

"Plus, “the worst thing about Clippy,” Reeves says, “was that he interrupted.”"

"Especially after Waldman embedded “tfc” in the source code for the assistant—“the friendly character” to anyone who asked, but “the fucking clown” to everyone in the know."

"Hobson, the program manager, traveled around the world to test different characters for the new Office release. After all those focus groups, a robot, cat, dog, globe, and several other assistants would emerge as the original roster of assistants in Office 97. But many users never knew they had options; Clippy was the default."

"MICROSOFT JUST COULDN’T let Clippy go. Facing sharp criticism and hawking more useful features, the company turned the assistant off by default in Windows XP."

"Kevan Atteberry started receiving a trickle of fan mail in his inbox. One supporter in Colombia created his own Clippy cartoons and fanfic. Others just wanted him to know how funny and helpful the assistant was."

"He added the illustration back into his portfolio and started dropping it in casual conversation. Even if people hated the paperclip, they felt attached to it. Microsoft itself didn’t completely remove the feature until Office 2007."

"The company says it’s not trying to make Clippy a main character again. “Clippy is living its best life,” a spokesperson relayed. “All the perks of retirement, while still being able to pop up and delight users in unexpected places.”"

"Still, Fries notes, you don’t normally see this level of emotional attachment to tech."

"They found that what Clippy was missing—the interpersonal skills to adapt, the “natural” part of Reeves and Nass’s theory in The Media Equation—is also what makes him funny today."