Cortana Easter Egg resurrects Clippy as your personal digital assistant

Cortana is full of personality (maybe not as much as Arsenio might like you to think), and the developers that built out the assistant's library of responses were sure to build in some good doses of self referential humor. A lot of times what a tool really needs to do to connect with users is put a smile on the user's face. And what's not to love about Clippy?

Wait, Clippy?

Yep, Clippy is back. Windows Phone Forum member Ceez was testing out Cortana when he asked "Do you like Clippy?". Cortana responds that yes, she like's Clippy — "He taught me how important it is to listen." And you might think that’d be the end of it. We certainly would have.

But it's not. Not by a long shot.

Because the pulsating circle that is Cortana is replaced with Clippy. Modern-style Clippy, but still Clippy nonetheless.

You're smiling, aren't you? Clippy might have been the bane of Microsoft Office users all the way up to a decade ago, but absence makes the heart grow fonder and now we look back at Clippy and laugh about how silly things were back in the day.

Cortana keeps operating as it should otherwise, but now you've got Clippy and his goofy paperclip grin staring back at you. It's amusing and maybe a bit disconcerting, but it's Clippy.

Hat tip to Ceez in the Windows Phone Central Forums for the discovery!

Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.