Cartoon insincerity

[jducoeur]

I am ruefully amused. I'm finally letting Yahoo update the current version of Messenger (its IM product). It's walking me through the wizard, and there along one side is this smiley face icon with big Mickey Mouse hands holding a clipboard, and the *most* shit-eatingly insincere grin on its face. Imagine a smiley face whose teeth take up 60% of the circle. Better yet, I'll just show it -- it's small:

And it's right above the fine print checkbox saying, "Make Yahoo my browser's home page".

If ever I need a graphical equivalent of the stereotypical slimy used car salesman, I think I've just found it...

Comments

[the-nita.livejournal.com]

Yah, that works...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

First thought: ew, you're right.

2nd: those teeth look a lot like a face-grill. Maybe its head is hollow.

3rd: maybe that's not a pencil.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a cigar at first glance. We're looking at the ash end.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

That's another possibility, yep.

[nazrynn.livejournal.com]

Almost looks a little psychotic...

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

See, I feel bad for the little guy. I don't think he's slimy, I think that smile, plastered on his face, is to keep the pain of having no torso or lower body away, while being forced into digital slavery to earn his electrons.

I can almost hear him through his gritted teeth: "please.... help me...."

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

Aw, Rick, you ruined it! I was with Justin all the way, until I read your comment, and now, along with the cigar thing, I can't help thinking that he's a kind of mutated Smiley Bone:

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

YES! Smiley Bone was exactly who I was thinking of, though I hadn't realized it.

BTW, who are you? (Couldn't tell from your userinfo page)

[fairdice.livejournal.com]

Jane & Justin's old apprentice, from before Fiammetta and I went off to California for grad school...

[rickthefightguy.livejournal.com]

Wow!!! Great to hear from you again! I didn't know you were back in Boston! Of course, the math professor.... Listen, I still owe you guys a bunch of hospitality, so if you ever get out to Chicago, let me know...

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

The Smarmy face. The smiley face of the new century.

[dsrtao]

Whatever happened to Prez, anyway?

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Ever see the 'talking paperclip' MS Assistant a few years back? It was likewise smarmy, including winking at you in a very disturbing way.

Still is

[metageek.livejournal.com]

Clippy is still out there—I read a couple of years back that they'd killed him off, but I still see him come up every time someone starts Office on a machine where they haven't turned him off. (This happens regularly here, because we have shared machines in the conference rooms. When someone starts up a PowerPoint presentation, Clippy shows up; rather than dig into the menus to turn him off for good, they just dismiss him so they can get on with their presentation.)

[jducoeur]

It's the joke of the computer industry -- almost universally agreed to be the single worst idea Microsoft has ever had. (Which is saying quite a bit.) The paperclip went beyond merely useless, to actively aggravating...