"I just did an ad with Microsoft. I'm dressed as Napoleon, and I get to slap Bill Gates"
About this Quote
Nothing telegraphs early-2000s celebrity culture like the breezy pride in doing an ad and getting to smack a tech monarch for pay. Jon Heder’s line is funny on its face - the surreal image of Napoleon (a costume that can’t not rhyme with his Napoleon Dynamite persona) delivering a slap to Bill Gates - but the real charge is in what it normalizes: corporate advertising as a playground for pop-cultural wish fulfillment.
The intent is casual bragging, sure, but also a wink to the audience’s fantasy of puncturing power. Gates, at that moment, wasn’t just a businessman; he was a symbol of monopolistic wealth and nerd-era dominance. Letting a quirky, deadpan actor “slap” him turns critique into a sanctioned gag. It’s rebellion that comes with a contract, choreographed and harmless, the kind of anti-authority gesture that actually reinforces the authority’s omnipresence. Microsoft isn’t being attacked; it’s proving it can take the joke, which is a form of brand invincibility.
Heder’s Napoleon costume is doing double duty. It invokes the historical Napoleon’s ego and imperial reach, while also cashing in on Heder’s own cultural stamp as a cult icon of awkwardness. That mash-up flatters everyone: Heder stays “random” and lovable, Gates looks approachable, and Microsoft gets to buy cool without seeming to beg for it. The subtext is the era’s trade: authenticity, rented by the minute, with the audience in on the transaction.
The intent is casual bragging, sure, but also a wink to the audience’s fantasy of puncturing power. Gates, at that moment, wasn’t just a businessman; he was a symbol of monopolistic wealth and nerd-era dominance. Letting a quirky, deadpan actor “slap” him turns critique into a sanctioned gag. It’s rebellion that comes with a contract, choreographed and harmless, the kind of anti-authority gesture that actually reinforces the authority’s omnipresence. Microsoft isn’t being attacked; it’s proving it can take the joke, which is a form of brand invincibility.
Heder’s Napoleon costume is doing double duty. It invokes the historical Napoleon’s ego and imperial reach, while also cashing in on Heder’s own cultural stamp as a cult icon of awkwardness. That mash-up flatters everyone: Heder stays “random” and lovable, Gates looks approachable, and Microsoft gets to buy cool without seeming to beg for it. The subtext is the era’s trade: authenticity, rented by the minute, with the audience in on the transaction.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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