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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, BONO LEAD TRIBUTE
TO STEVE JOBS AT THE 16TH ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS
Critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, writer, and actor Patton Oswalt hosted the Show and brought the house down, often poking fun at some of the Webby Winners themselves.
In one of the most anticipated moments of the evening, Justin Long and John Hodgman, the duo known for their series of iconic Apple ads, introduced Richard Dreyfuss, who voiced one of Apple’s earliest campaigns, “The Crazy Ones”. The Academy Award-winning actor, who said “Exception that proves the rule” in regard to Steve Jobs, introduced The Webby Awards’ tribute video to the late Apple founder.
Highlights from the tribute include thank you messages from some of pop-culture’s most iconic figures:
- “For a handheld internet;” – Seth Meyers
- For saving lives with (RED);” – Bono
- “For spreading American ingenuity worldwide;” – President Bill Clinton
- “For exploring beyond our reach;” – Buzz Aldrin
- “Steve Jobs was insanely great;” – Vice President Al Gore
- “He made turtlenecks sexy again;” – Jimmy Fallon
- “A meticulous attention to detail;” – Stephen Colbert
- “Forty-three patented inventions. Check Wikipedia;” – Jon Stewart
President Barack Obama closed the video by stating: “The truth is, when we talk about Steve Jobs, we only need one word: amazing.”
The Webby Awards also honored the year’s best works with Special Achievement Awards.
Patton Oswalt presented the Best Actresses Award to Graydon Sheppard and Juliette Lewis, who accepted for their viral video, “Sh-t Girls Say”. The two accepted their award with the 5-Word Speech, “We just want to thank…”
In a nod to his “Game of Thrones” character Jaime “Kingslayer” Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, accepting the award for Tourism in Websites on behalf the Greenland Tourism Board, said in Greenlandic: “Things I do for love.” The words mimic the phrase his Game of Thrones character uttered just after pushing young Bran Stark out a window in Season One of the HBO series.
Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his work with Bloomberg L.P. Bloomberg, who has been a strong advocate for the NYC-based tech scene, said “Make it here, then everywhere.”
Iconic Icelandic musician Bjork accepted her Webby Award for Artist of the Year from Scott Snibbe, who helped to develop her album app “Biophilia,” with the 5-Word Speech “A-E-I-O-U.”
Google Creative Lab’s Iain Tait presented the Agency of the Year Award to BBH for the agency’s “Dear Sophie” campaign. Saneel Radia of BBH accepted, saying “Only emoji communicate true happiness.”
Scott Schulman of The Sartorialist presented the Breakout of the Year Award to Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger of Instagram. In a play on words that is a nod to their photo-sharing app,the pair accepted their award by stating, “This here requires no filter.”
Comedian Jim Gaffigan introduced Person of the Year to fellow comedian Louis C.K., who accepted with his 5-Word Speech “When I die, bye-bye.”
Other notable 5-Word Speeches include:
- “Another Medium Conquered. Hi Mom” – The Onion
- “Never hire shitty plumbers again.” – Yelp
- “150,000 million users don’t lie.” – Pandora
- “Thank you. Thank you so…” – Weird Al Yankovic
- “Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws. Awesome!” – Marc Fiorgione
- “Simplify…” – Dropbox
- “Thanks Dot Tumblr Dot Com.” – Tumblr
- “Thank you for hanging out.” – Google+
- “Stop and smell the data.” – FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver
Highlights of this year’s Webby Awards also include:
Lin-Manuel Miranda, who presented Fab.com co-founders Jason Goldberg and Bradford Shellhammer The People’s Voice Award for Best Retail Website and Best Shopping App. The duo accepted by saying, “Thanks. Smile, you’re designed to.”
This year’s Webby Awards introduced a special segment called, “In Mememorium,”, which featured some of the year’s most popular, and now “dead”, memes, including: “Owling,” “Ridiculously Photogenic Guy,” “Cholafied,” “Herman Cain Loves Pokemon,” “Angelina Jolie Leg,” and “Tupac Hologram.”
Spike Lee introduced Grantland’s look at the year in sports and social media after bringing on stage surprise guest and New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin, who gave his 5-Word Speech to thank his fans: “Internet fans, Iove you. Thanks.” The pair welcomed ESPN’s Skip Bayless and DJ Steve Porter to accept their award for “Tim Tebow: All He Does is Win.”
Toasting his friend and officemate, Jason Sudeikis presented the Best Web/Host Personality to Saturday Night Live writer Mike O’Brien, who accepted his award by saying “I just… I just… Just…”
The 16th Annual Webby Awards also featured energizing performances by The Key of Awesome, the People’s Voice Winner for Comedy: Long Form or Series, who sang their hit “Eat it. Don’t Tweet it.”, and Passion Pit, who performed their new single “Take a Walk” off their upcoming album “Gossamer.”
Pete Cashmore, founder of Mashable, introduced the “Year in Protest,” a look back at the role social media played in protest movements in the U.S. and around the world. He also presented Facebook with the People’s Special Achievement for Social Change. Serkan Piantino, engineering manager at Facebook, accepted by saying, “Be bold. Focus. Do good.”
David-Michel Davies, the Executive Director of The Webby Awards, introduced the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s “Remember Me Project,” which won the Webby for Cultural Institution for a groundbreaking campaign to identify young children who survived the Holocaust. Tibor Sands, one of 300 Survivors identified because of the project, accepted the award by saying: “Thank you for remembering me.”
Cracked.com brought their own trophy to accept their People’s Voice Award for Humor Website, and used their 5-Word Speech to remark, “Much bigger than Bloomberg’s.”
For the first time ever, with the help of BuzzFeed, The Webby Awards named Nyan Cat “Meme of the Year”. The special rainbow Webby was presented by Kenyatta Cheese of “Know Your Meme” to Nyan creator Chris Torres, but the trophy was quickly stolen by another of the Internet’s real-life memes, Scumbag Steve.
To catch all the highlights from the 16th Annual Webby Awards, please visit watch.webbyawards.com.
- High-res photos will be available for your post-event coverage at this link (Photo credit: WireImage/The 16th Annual Webby Awards): http://www.webbyawards.com/press/media_photo.php
- Embeddable video highlights from the evening are available here: watch.webbyawards.com
** PLEASE CREDIT THE 16TH ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS WITH ALL VIDEO AND PHOTO USE***
About The Webby Awards:
Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video, and Mobile & Apps. Established in 1996, The 16th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Google+, Yahoo!, Vitamin T, AOL, Live Nation, ShareThis, The Daily, VICE, Funny or Die, MLB Advanced Media, JWT, Financial Times, BuzzFeed, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Guardian News and Media.
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