Somewhere in fall of 2000 I wasted ten minutes and cut-and-pasted together an image showing some of the other ways that Microsoft's Clippy might like to help you. By giving completely inappropriate advice. I figure this thing cost the world quite a bit of productivity as it wandered through various corporate email systems. And I admit to taking some pride in that.
At one point it was a Slashdot Quickie. It also seems to have inspired a cartoon strip. These days it's mostly been seen in the company of similar spoofs usually titled, Things you wish your computer had.
A couple of people have accused me of just copying the joke on this page (scroll down about halfway). Just a coincidence. If two people can come up with the foundation of the Special Theory of Relativity, two people can come up with the same joke. (By the way his essay makes some good points).
Clippy is actually a direct descendent of Microsoft Bob. Read the link for an entertaining history of this misproduct.
If you're offended by this, I'm sorry. You may want to read some other joke. However, it has come to my attention that this image is being used on a page that appears to be promoting suicide. I'm not especially happy with that.