In 2021, meme culture is everpresent. In 1997 it was still developing, but Clippy, the Microsoft Office for Windows Office Assistant, was about as close to achieving viral infamy as it got. Now, well over 20 years later, that viral infamy has inverted and turned into a celebration of Clippy's absurdity. As is now the way, Microsoft is looking to capitalize on Clippy's widespread recognition. That means that Clippy could be coming back soon... sort of.

In a surprising post on Microsoft's official Twitter account, the company made a promise to its followers. If the tweet in question could receive 20,000 likes on Twitter, then it would willingly replace the paperclip emoji in Microsoft 365 with Clippy. Microsoft 365 being the company's modern Microsoft Office, only now it requires a subscription. Microsoft 365 does include the modern Microsoft Outlook, however, so Clippy would be included in Microsoft's email services at the very least.

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To say that Microsoft's post on Twitter has been successful would be a gross understatement. Even those who may have appreciated Clippy in the past or embraced the meme they have become since couldn't have predicted the response. The tweet has eclipsed Microsoft's 20,000 likes request. It's currently rapidly approaching 100,000 likes, instead. It's also been retweeted nearly 10,000 times, and has well over 1,000 responses on top of that. There's a lot of people who clearly want to see more of Clippy in the future.

Microsoft has yet to officially respond to the Twitter post regarding crossing the threshold. It would be unlike Microsoft to renege on the deal, though. The internet would likely be unwilling to forgive Microsoft if it forgot about its promise. Microsoft's already in enough of a spot as it is, as Twitter users will be hounding the company until it's available. Odds are Microsoft is already moving swiftly to make the change so that all this excitement can translate to Microsoft 365 subscriptions.

One interesting detail to take note of is the image of Clippy that Microsoft shared in its now-viral tweet. It's a completely remade Clippy, updated to look more like a modern Pixar mascot rather than the unsettling CG animation from the 90s. There's clearly been some effort put into making Clippy more appealing to a modern audience.

The question is, where does Microsoft go from here? Surely adding Clippy as an emoji is only the start of a marketing campaign or some other strategy to use Clippy's popularity in one way or another. Those 100,000 likes on Twitter could mean there's more Clippy to come in the future.

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