The internet during the '9s was one of the biggest and most confusing times for the medium. With the success of Microsoft's Windows 95 and '98, more people than ever were using computers, and more people than ever needed to know what they were doing. So many interesting and weird solutions were invented to help make computers easier to use. software that helped with the most random things, a tutorial video made by the cast of friends, and one of the most infamous additions, a little virtual desktop helper named Clippet, aka Clippy, made with the Microsoft Agent software. He was an office assistant on Microsoft Word that would, albeit annoyingly, offer help to the user. A very interesting and odd part of computer history. Now, fast forward to the year 2024. I just got a tattoo of a purple monkey. How are these related? With the success of Windows came the success of people who just really wanted to get into your computer and destroy the thing. There were some viruses that just pushed what your Windows could do for the fun of it. And then there were some viruses that wanted to do actual harm. But viruses had been a thing since the beginning of computers starting all the way back on DOSs. It's just that with the launch of the worldwide web and the new norm of having a PC in your household, malware and its variants alike grew rampid. We could totally talk about all the super infamous and evil viruses like I love you or my doom, but why do that when I could talk about the monkey who can sing to you? In the year 1999, the internet was blessed and cursed for a thousand years with the creation of a new program created by Jay and Joe Bonszi. We finally got to meet Bonszi Buddy. Isn't it kind of funny that this guy right here was named after two businessmen who violated the Kappa Act? Bonsi Buddy, made in 1999 and discontinued around 2004, was a virtual assistant similar to the previously mentioned Clippy. Unlike Clippy though, Bonsi wasn't limited to just a single program. He was a program on the computer itself. your email, your downloads, your will. He could manage it all. I love this dumb scam of a software so much. Part of it is because of how he made a comeback after his discontinuation in 2004, but we'll talk about that in a bit. I've seen quite a few videos about Bonszi, video essays, history videos, and showing off the program itself. I've also discovered through some of these videos that a lot of people think he'll actually destroy your computer for some reason. Come on. You think he would damage your PC? Nonsense. Just your sanity. So, today I'd like to actually review the Bonsy Buddy program itself. starting off with its history and then talking about what it does, what it used to do, and if having your data stolen and your child relentlessly advertised to was really all worth it. It wasn't. But before we get into Bonsi Buddy, I think it's only fair we know the story behind the ape. So, here's a bit of a history lesson about the genius that was Bonsi Buddy. Probably from downloading Bonsi Buddy. I got all this information from various Wikipedia articles, legal documents, hours of deep diving into weird advertising companies, and my brain. In the year 1993, we meet our brave heroes, the Bonsi brothers, aka Jay and Joe. This was before the whole virtual agent desktop buddy was a thing. The earliest thing I could find that these two worked on was a program called Voice Email, a software that lets you attach audio files to your emails. There were a couple other random programs they made like an internet booster and internet alert, which 100% were just big old nothing burgers. If anything ever claims to boost your internet, run 50 m in the opposite direction. In the year 1999, the Bonsi brothers decided to release something that could do more than just one thing. Like the other programs they made, they utilized the Microsoft agent technology, which allowed you to create your own virtual desktop assistant. Characters like Pey and Merlin were popular ones along with the previously mentioned Clippy. Clippy was baked into Microsoft Office, though, sealed away never to see the glories of this world. And in this new program the two masterminds created, they made one of the most recognizable desktop assistants yet. This program was called Bonsi Buddy and featured Pety the Parrot at first. You think the guys who made Internet Booster are going to have original ideas at first? Nah, you got to give him a year to cook up something like a purple monkey. Bonsy Buddy was a jack of all trades. He could manage downloads, utilize a calendar, help with emails on top of more silly functions like singing and telling jokes. His little gorilla personality had it all. And while not an essential for your PC, on paper, it was a pretty neat program. It was essentially a precursor to things like Siri and Alexa. But please take heed of how I say it was neat on paper. We'll get into his functions later, but for now, let's talk about what really matters. Subscription services and stealing children's info. Bonsi had a few issues of varying importance. For one, he was annoying as I mean, the man himself wasn't always tolerable. He talks and jokes like every 5 seconds, but what he did to your PC was way worse than that. Bonsyuddy is what you would call adwear, which is a type of virus that constantly bugs you with popups, random new software, all that garbage. Bonsi would show you fake error messages and virus alerts, have tons of pop-up ads, and even change your homepage to bonsai.com. This is textbook virus shenanigans. And proving its shadiness even further was another glaring issue with Bonsi Buddy, the spywear. Now, every single program in existence collects and sells your data. At least now they'll tell you that, hey, you know how you looked up how to blow up the sun? Yeah, we're going to sell that info to Ubisoft. But this was the early 2000s. The internet was still fairly new and people weren't aware about online companies tracking and selling your data, especially when they didn't tell you. People were calling Bonsi Software out on this for literal years before they finally got their comeuppins. Believe it or not though, that's not the worst thing Bonsi Buddy did. It introduced a subscription service. While Bonsy Buddy was free, unless you shelled out the big bucks, you couldn't truly unlock his potential. You were able to pay for additional features, though. Things like an email reader, story books, games, more jokes. These were all so damn expensive, though. Why on earth would you spend $40 on more jokes? Well, we aren't on Earth, are we? We're in Bonsi's domain now. Anyways, if you wanted to get all of these features for cheap, you could sign up for a gold membership, a subscription service which let you access all of Bonsi's paid features for 10 bucks a month or 90 a year. It's just not worth it at all. That's roughly 150 bucks today. Some old websites I found even claimed that you couldn't buy certain modules separately. Only the gold membership. However, the gold membership did one thing right. Physical rewards. Now, for all I know, there was a million different Bonsi products out there that existed, but online documentation only exists for one. An official Bonsy Buddy plush. This thing haunts my dreams. I cannot rest in my cold dark grave until that Bonsy Buddy plush is on the shelf behind me. If you aren't selling it on eBay for like a grand and being unwilling to budge, by the way, please send me a message on Twitter, Blue Sky, email me, send me a goddamn message by Pigeon. I will make an offer for that plush. Won't be a grand, but I'll make an offer. You know what, Jay and Joe, if you're listening right now, if you give me any type of Bonsi memorabilia that you happen to have, we'll all forget about the whole spywear thing. I talked to all 8 billion people on this planet, were all in agreeance. With all of these factors to Bonsi Buddy, it was only a matter of time before legal troubles struck. A class action lawsuit was settled in 2003 over their shady use of advertising and fake pop-ups. And then there was the big one. In 2004, the FTC hit the Bonsi Bros with a $75,000 fine for violating Kappa or the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. This was wraps for Bonsi as he probably wasn't racking in enough to keep up with the fines and the bad publicity. Besides a random release of Max Alert in 2003, another desktop assistant based on virus detection. Ironic. Bonsi Software was finished. In 2004, Bonsy Buddy was officially discontinued. As an infant, I was devastated by the news. Bonsi Software ceased operations and Bonsy Buddy's website was left open to rot and eventually be shut down years later. This is where the Buddy and the Brothers split paths as neither of their stories are over just yet. Jay and Joe had other companies after Bonsi Software was shut down. Mainly the company 2K Direct, who still operates to this day as I Promote. At least Joe still works for them according to what I found. But I don't know what I Promote does is that they help companies advertise online. Really came full circle with that, huh, Joe? I mean, as long as they're doing it legally, it really doesn't matter. I'm a pretty forgiving guy. And while what they did was scummy, I'd like to think 21 years is enough time to change and grow as people. I mean, they gave us a funny purple monkey. They can't be that bad, right? Speaking of which, what happened to Bonsi Buddy after this? The Swedish happened, that's what. After his discontinuation, the website stayed up for a few years after. I saw people throwing around the year 2008, but I couldn't confirm this. Either way, he eventually disappeared. Just another niche computer program that would only exist in the memories of those who used it. Enter Joel, aka Var Skeletor. He was a live streamer for the website Vine Sauce that gained popularity through a couple of things. Bootlegs, old computer games, and most importantly, the Windows destruction. It's exactly how it sounds. He'd get a Windows virtual machine, pump it full of viruses and other garbage, be silly and goofy, and then render the whole thing unusable. These were my back in the day. In fact, Joel is one of the only reasons I know what Twitch is and made my account in the first place. But back to Bonsi. In 2014, during Joel's Windows XP destruction, his first one, he decided to download the purple wrap scallion for all to see. Also, fun fact, the first time he tried to download Bonsi, it redirected him to an adult website naked ladies. No. What? Thanks, Bonsi, for that one. Can't have the thing made for kids not redirect to that, can we? Anyways, after the video of the XP destruction blew up, so did Bonsi Buddy, garnering an entirely new dedicated fan base. He was lay epic awesome meme expand dong anyone. This has been a hilarious toebook classic. Thank you and good night. Bonsi also inadvertently became the poster child of computer viruses. Despite not doing any actual damage to your computer, you'd see people just straight up saying he could destroy your PC. Hell, at this point in 2014, he couldn't even steal your data. The servers for Bonsi shut down years prior. So, while you probably shouldn't be typing in your address, he's relatively harmless nowadays. So, as of 2014, he was no longer the infamous spyw wear aimed at children. He was the infamous defunct spyw wear joked about by children. And I was no exception. In middle school, I was obsessed with this guy and computer viruses as a whole. True story. For my seventh grade English class, I wrote a story about superherooes fighting Bonsy Buddy and got an A somehow. That poor teacher, man. That was like 20 pages. So, the legacy of Bonsi Buddy had changed and evolved, remaining a niche part of pop culture online. He frequented as a running joke on Joel's live streams. He appeared in even more Windows destructions and even had his own actual virus made about him called Bonsify. It does indeed bonsify your computer. I actually reached out to Joel for a comment on how he felt about the resurgence of Bonsy Buddy and he responded. Here's what he had to say about it. I don't know why he said this. Should I be concerned? As for the Bonsybuddy websites, they were bought out and changed a few times over the years. The original Bonsybuddy.tk TK website now reads rest in piss forever miss with wake me up blaring in the background and bonsies a flying and bonszi.com now redirects to an open seas page with NFTTS of Bonsi buddy made by the original creators Jay and Joe Bonszi come on guys I literally just went up to bat for you and you're going to go and do this I fine whatever I don't care anymore now to be fair there's no real evidence that this is actually Joe and Jay. The only reason I feel like there's a chance is because of this NFT right here. That is a high quality render of Bonsi, probably the highest quality one that exists. It's entirely possible that they just recreated it or cleaned up a pre-existing render, but I won't cope too hard. I won't exactly be surprised if the shady businessman invested in a shady business. But let's not linger on the negative stuff. What about the positive stuff to come out of Bonsi Buddy? Well, he makes for a wicked tattoo. Well, for one, there's been quite a few revival attempts for this program. The biggest one I found is from 2024 called Bonsy Buddy Rewritten made by Maddox 5081. It was a spyware adwear free recreation of the titular gorilla that mimics the program as best as possible. Maddox and another developer, Connor 88, actually went through and remade all of the classic Bonsi software, including their very own Blob Buddy, which I'm uh I'm good, actually. Bonsi was also the main inspiration behind the popular indie horror game. It's a game that takes place on a virtual desktop and features my favorite walking wad of gum. I made a whole video on that game if you want to learn more, but go play it for yourself. It's quite the ride. And that's kind of where Bonsy Buddy sits today. He's the unofficial mascot for Computer Viruses, an old meme, a character with an oddly big fan base behind it. The proud mascot of Bonsi Gold membership, the guy who has beat Sonic.exe's ass multiple times. Bonsy Buddy is such a fascinating thing. There aren't many other computer viruses with this level of infamy that have such a large fan base. You don't see people going, "Oh, hell yeah. I love W to Cry. Remember how it stole all that money from those hospitals? That's a new meme if I've ever seen one." He's just weirdly endearing, and I'm genuinely curious if his legacy will continue to live on. And that was the history of Bonsi Buddy. But we're not quite done yet. I know, I know. The second you heard that there was a calendar feature, you've just been dying to see this bad boy in action. So, let's dive into the actual Bonsi Buddy program and see is it worth the hype. The hype being a goofy virus that's been made fun of for a decade, but I mean, we could still see. For my review, I'll be hopping between two different versions of Bonsi. The original with all the gold features and the rewritten version. both had different pros and cons, and just so I could show everything this program could do, I had to use both. Also, on Windows 10, for some reason, this blue background is behind Bonszi. Not on Windows XP, though. I'm sure there's a technical reason for this, but I think it's funnier to just say that this is his eternal prison after he was caught back in 2004. The website to download this guy is just great. I've always wanted to download a best friend. Bonsie swings in from his vines to welcome you to the program. All you got to do now is type in your full legal name, address, and email. Not even a full minute into the program, and it's already stealing your information. Got to respect the hustle. I'm no pushover, though. Just so he doesn't think about stealing my data, I put in a name that would force him to respect me. Better put in another one just in case. Fill out your interests. And with that, you're able to use Bonsi Buddy. Bonsi himself sits on your desktop 24/7 unless you hide or close him. He'll swing around, do little idle animations, or randomly tell jokes or facts at the most inconvenient times. Son of a ruined my solitire game. You can actually turn down all of this in his personality tab, which is a really nice feature to have. Otherwise, you can move him around, shake him, really put him wherever. On to the actual features though, which he has a lot of and not many at the same time. Bonsi is supposed to have this little menu to access most of these features from, but for some reason it doesn't appear for me on the normal version. It's on the rewritten version, but the icons on the left are different. You could just right click on him, though. It's the same thing. One of the main features here is the search and surf. With this feature, you can search the internet or just straight up type in a website to visit. This feature is beyond dead at this point, but Rewritten actually lets you do this, which is pretty cool. For the haters who say me and Bonsi aren't friends, explain this. There's also the many management and office-like features. First is the download manager, which uh manages downloads, I guess. I wasn't exactly sure how to test this one, I'm not going to lie. You can also send emails with his help and on rewritten even share him on social media. Will I be logging into my Twitter account with Bonsi? As much as I want to sick this guy on Elon, I'm not giving this program my login info. And lastly, there's the calendar. Thank god I'll finally remember to play Minecraft in 20 years. That's about all that Bonsi has for practical features, but what about his fun stuff that he has? H, I don't know how I'm feeling about this. I mean, is it really as good as it was advertised? I like to draw and climb trees in color. I like to draw and climb trees in color. I like to draw and climb trees in color. All right, I'm I'm sold. I just take everything I own, please. There's some more basic features like utilizing Bonsi's text to speech program. Just say whatever you want. Keep it clean, though. Don't make him say anything obscene. You can also ask for a joke or a fact, which are I mean, they're jokes and facts. What else can I say about it? Did you know that 1961 was the most recent year that could be written both upside down and right side up and appear the same? I didn't want to believe it either. What do you mean you didn't want to believe it? You can also get him to play animations, play audio, and even sing songs to you. Honestly, the songs might be my favorite feature. Something about old texttospech software being used for music is really charming to me. Also, how they had to spell certain words to get him to pronounce them right. That's just neat. I can listen to In My Merry Oldsmo for hours. Now, time for the slightly more interesting features, stories and games. The stories are just that, stories you read along with Bonsi. I was only able to get one to function because this program did not appreciate me trying to read any other ones. Side note, the original Bonszi program broke on me several times. Buttons were disappearing. At one point, it was in a different language, and then this happened. No, Bonsie, I don't want you to make your home my home. I don't currently feel safe. Anyways, back to the one story I was able to get working. Bonsi and the Polyzou. Something about Bonsi and Frog Bonsi getting a camera, taking pictures of all their friends. Hilarity ensued. The drawings were very jarring. At some points, the handdrawn style looks really nice, and at times it looks like Bonsi is actively dying in an explosion. And last, but not least, the games. They're just themed variants of pre-existing games. First is Bonsi's Beach Checkers, where the crabs just throw the other crabs into the stratosphere. You've got Bonsi's Jungle Jigsaw, the worst Jigsaw game I've ever played. The first few are fine, but what the hell is this? What six-year-old is going to be able to complete that? And finally, Bonsi Solitaire featuring three whole themes. It's just bare bones, no feature solitaires with pictures of Bonsi on the cards. I'm not proud to say this, but I played like at least an hour of the solitaire, and that's all Bonsy Buddy has. Like I said, it seems like a lot, but it really isn't. Bonsie's few practical uses just weren't enough to call this a good virtual assistant. At best, Bonsi Buddy was a souped-up desktop toy, which is fine, but they acted like he was going to change the internet forever. Only took him a decade to fulfill that promise. At worst, he was an annoying, slightly useless program for children that stole your information, installed random garbage, and went down in history as one of the most infamous computer programs out there. But just look at him. How could you hate that face? Bonsy Buddy is so baffling yet intriguing at the same time. Sure, computer programs targeting kids or harboring similar goals had existed around this time, but none of them gained the notoriety and infamy that Bonsy Buddy did. The only thing I could possibly think of that reached this level was the Pikachu worm. But that wasn't even like anything. That was just a poorly coded virus that asked for permission to do damage to your PC. We all know Bonsi would never do such a thing like ask for permission. Do I have a sound reason for why I like Bonsie so much? Beyond nostalgia and a general obsession over computer viruses, not really. But even if you aren't like me, you have to admit that this shady software turned nostalgic joke is a one-ofa-kind and truly an interesting piece of internet history. Maybe I just need to get more in the mindset of Bonsi Buddy to really appreciate his brilliance. I need to breathe, eat, live the primate. Only then will we truly grasp the pure deaths never seen of this program. Do I look like spyw wear yet? [Music] Get down till you catch fire. Dance and shake the soul and makes you feel [Music] alive. You got the wheel.