Sexy Gates proposal brings more needling Seattle’s way

Bill Gates (via Wikipedia)

Bill Gates (via Wikipedia)

For comedians and headline writers everywhere, Seattle is the gift that keeps on giving.

First there were jibes pointed at impolitic remarks about the locals by the newly crowed Miss Seattle. Then there were smirking comments about the legalization of recreational marijuana and even strange University of Washington research about whether we’re all really living in a matrix.

Now there’s the latest proposal from billionaire Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation.

THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO (National Broadcasting Co.)

Monday, March 25, 2013

Transcript

Opening monologue

JAY LENO (host): Well, Bill Gates is offering $100,000 to the person who successfully reinvents the condom.

(Audience laughter as Leno arches eyebrows)

LENO: Bill Gates? Is that going to work? Guys, would you buy a condom that has the word “micro” and “soft” in it?

(Loud audience laughter)

LENO: Is that really going to work? No, I don’t …

(Drowned out by sustained audience laughter)

LENO: Let’s just hope it offers better protection against viruses than Windows, okay?

(Audience laughter, cut to commercial)

Leno, who is hardly New To Seattle when it comes to fodder for his monologue, is not alone in connecting Gates’ challenge with the source of his fortune. Cracked a post on the ABC News website, “Bill Gates’ latest project gives a whole new meaning to the old Microsoft slogan, ‘Your Potential. Our Passion.’ ”

Meanwhile, on the headline front: “Gates wants geeks to build a better condom,” said the website of KCTV in Kansas City. A story on Zimbio was headed, “You’ll Never Guess What Bill Gates Will Pay You $100,000 To Do.”

Seattle can take some solace from the fact that such happenings taking place in, say, Minot, N.D., probably wouldn’t get this attention. Clearly, another reason for tourists to come visit.

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