Microsoft co-founder and once the world’s richest man Bill Gates is again making headlines. A clip from 1995 has again surfaced online showing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates being laughed at during a live interview for his bold predictions about the Internet. The viral clip doing the rounds of the internet is from The Late Show with David Letterman. In the clip Gates was seen being laughed at for trying to explain the potential of the internet.

The Bill Gates interview that sparked laughter

On November 27, 1995, Bill Gates appeared on The Late Show to talk about the internet. Speaking about it, Gates addressed the internet as the ‘new big thing’. He explained that people will be able to publish information, create homepage and also send electronic mail using internet. However, the host of the show responded with mockery and compared the features of the internet with the then available technologies.“You could listen to a baseball game on your computer,” Gates said. Letterman shot back, “Does radio ring a bell?” prompting laughter from the audience. Gates clarified that users could listen to games anytime, to which Letterman replied, “Do tape recorders ring a bell?”

A vision that sounded absurd

Along with this, Bill gates also talked about internet’s ability to connect people with niche interests also offer continuous updated information. Letterman dismissed the idea with a joke about ‘loner chat rooms’ underscoring how unfamiliar and unnecessary the internet seemed at the time. The clip, recently shared by tech-focused social media pages, has been praised for its “wholesome” and “innocent” tone. But more importantly, it serves as a reminder that even the most transformative innovations often sound ridiculous before they become indispensable.

From skepticism to ubiquity

All the features that Bill Gates described back then have now become a reality. The interview now stands as a testament to visionary thinking and the resistance it often faces. From laughter to legacy, Gates’ moment on late-night television is a powerful snapshot of how the future often arrives disguised as folly.