Beware the Bonzi Buddy and anything from bonzi.com!

I had an unpleasant experience when I fell for that 'cute' purple gorilla - what's with coloring animals purple anyway?

Here's how it started. I went to a site, and when exiting it I was met with a quiz.

"What is the smartest animal?"

I was to check off the choice in the list provided, and the list made the answer so obvious, with animals such as the donkey, the chicken, etc. with the one standout animal - the monkey. Well, naturally what else could I answer? So I did. Cool. Then I was taken to bonzi.com, where this gorilla desktop pal was supposed to help you surf the net, talk to you, and generally be cute with his antics. Okay, being a sucker for cute furry critters and anything with sound, I eagerly bit the bait.

The download wasn't long, and it would've been shorter if I had been sitting at the computer the entire time. So no complaints there. But the first thing I noticed was how gravelly and un-cute his voice was. Holy crow, was I really sure I wanted this thing chattering at me? But then again, it was a gorilla, so what the heck? It might be fun for a while.

That night, I had more fun turning on and off my computer just so Bonzi Buddy could greet me with something different. I got a kick out of his telling me I was up too late, and despite his uncomfortably drunken old man sounding voice, thought he was kind of cute.

That is, until...I realized that every second thing out of his mouth was a plea for me to let him hear my "lovely voice" or send him to "school" so he would be smarter and say more amazing facts, find out how to increase his joke telling and song collection...all of which lead me to his bonzi.com site which did nothing but advertise the 'gold membership' which you had to have in order to do all the things he kept prattling on and bugging me about. No thanks.

As for that 'school' he kept on about, I could not reconcile the idea of something with the voice of an old drunk needing to be in school. They really should've given him a younger, more childlike voice to match the appearance and the school idea. And believe me, I had no interest in hearing him sing!

Try as he might, he was not getting one red cent out of me. I might be a sucker for cute critters, but not enough to buy into something so useless and probably very annoying in the future.

At first, I would click off that stupid site, then eventually I did my best to tune out and ignore his attempts to lure me back there again and again.

I suppose that must've made him mad, because here's what happened next.

Dear old Bonzi Buddy, buddy that he was, showed his true colors besides purple, that is.

First it was my email program acting up. Messages wouldn't display properly in the index. Then it got to where I couldn't even write email messages. Most of what I typed just stopped showing up on the screen! Argh! Still, Bonzi Buddy insisted on trying the hard sell on me. Like sheesh, if there was an option in his program telling him to forget the sales pitch and forget the url to his own site, I would've used it.

Then I discovered that my browser's homepage was reset, without my consent, to that blasted bonzi.com page! I thought I had specified in the installation not to do that...?

A temporary fix to my email program was when starting up the computer and clicking Bonzi Buddy's "good bye" option. That shut him up, completely. No jokes, interesting facts, nothing...I guess he wasn't interested in sharing those with me minus the cyber-telemarketing. So what was the use of having him then?

I had originally planned to keep him around until he had told me all his jokes, facts, and anything else he could do besides the annoying cyber-pan-handling. Then once he ran out of material and I got tired of him, I would delete him from my computer. I had no intention of paying money to buy more jokes, facts, and songs that would eventually repeat over and over again and that you can see all over the net in forwards and numerous other sites. That's ridiculous.

However, Bonzi Buddy didn't make it that far on my computer. When he muddled with my connections so I couldn't disconnect and reconnect again, and couldn't even fix the connections setting configurations, the purple old drunk money-grubbing gorilla had to go! The uninstall wasn't too hard, but I'm not sure I'm completely rid of the obnoxious bonzibrat! After the uninstall, explorer still had the bonzi.com site as the default homepage, but this time I was asked if I wanted to go there. Of course, my horrified answer was a very definite click on the 'NO' button, and the option "Don't show me this message again" was checked.

Even after that, my connection settings were still messed up, and I couldn't reconnect because of some stupid error message saying my username and password were invalid. Bull crap! A couple of days of trying to reset, reconfigure, still getting the same darn error messages, and tearing my hair out, then, in desperation I ran the system restore.

Now my computer is working as it should be, and never again will I go anywhere near bonzi.com if I can help it!

Don't get Bonzi Buddy, he will try to eat your pocket book and your computer!

The following are posts from epinions.com, obviously I'm not the only one who got chewed by this gorilla virus.

* * *

Bonzi Buddy

30% Recommended (74 reviews) Ease of Use: 3.5

Bonzi Buddy

Bonzi Buddy: This Gorilla Will Try to Pick Your Pockets!
by amykhar | Jul 15 '02 (Updated Jul 16 '02) in Software
Pros: cute idea
Cons: badly executed excuse for a sales pitch. Hold on to your wallet!
The Bottom Line: Do not download or install Bonzi Buddy. It is nothing but animated spam.
Recommended: No
Back when Epinions was new, I discovered Bonzi Buddy before it was a gorilla. In those days, he was a cute little Parrot named Petey. Today, Bonzi Buddy is a small purple gorilla named Bonzi. However, not much has changed. Bonzi Buddy is still software that should not be installed on any computer, no matter how cute he seems.

My eleven year old son is a sucker for cute Internet things. He has downloaded and installed Bonzi Buddy on my husband’s computer at least twice and been threatened with capital punishment both times. Therefore, he nearly fell over when he walked in my room last night and saw the purple gorilla on my desktop. With one eyebrow raised, he looked at me and asked, “Is that Bonzi Buddy I see?”

“It’s for a review", I muttered. “I have to see if it is still as bad as I remember.”

“It doesn’t DO anything unless you pay for it”, he complained. And that is the true problem with Bonzi Buddy.

A few years ago, Microsoft ran a series of commercials that talked about how smart computers were going to be in the near future. One of them featured a small, animated computer dog that fetched movie tickets, kept track of appointments, and basically handled all the detail work that life involves. I fell in love with that little dog, and wanted one of my very own. Unfortunately, the dog was vaporware. I hope somebody makes him a reality soon, because my desire for him keeps making me install software duds.

Shortly after those ads, Microsoft released Microsoft Bob. I was a broke college student, but I wanted Bob. I adored the idea of a little doggie keeping my schoolwork, finances, and household organized. I forked over big bucks and bought Bob, and I guess you know how that went. Bob never installed properly on my machine. When it worked at all, it only did a small fraction of what the software was intended to do. Usually the software simply crashed at startup. Eventually, Microsoft couldn’t give Bob away.

Then Microsoft released their Agent component. An Agent is a piece of software that is designed to enhance the user interface of Windows software. It can speak, respond to voice commands, and move about the entire computer screen. Microsoft has written all of the code necessary for developers to add agents to their own software, and agents can be quite helpful because they are easier for non-nerds to relate to and understand. A well-designed agent can humanize a computer and make it accessible to just about anyone.

Bonzi Buddy is based on Microsoft Agent, but it is not a well-designed agent. Unfortunately, the makers of Bonzi Buddy loaded him up with annoying features, a sales pitch beyond belief, and not much else.

The free version of Bonzi Buddy is severely limited and severely annoying. He has the ability to: * Tell a few jokes * Share a few interesting facts * Check for breaking news * Check for virus alerts * Search * Sing a few songs (badly) * Manage Downloads (I have not used this feature) * Alert users about appointments and other calendar events - Uses a proprietary calendar, which makes it useless for me. I maintain my calendar on my Palm.

But mostly, Bonzi just tries to sell you his “add on modules”. As an act of benevolence on my part, I considered actually purchasing one of the add on modules to see if throwing a bit of money at Bonzi would make him behave better. Fortunately, fate intervened, and I did not make the purchase.

The first time I tried to investigate the email module that would allow Bonzi to read my email to me and alert me when new email arrived, Bonzi crashed. The second time I got brave and tried, I discovered how sneaky Bonzi really was. Bonzi offers several different modules priced between $5 and $20 each. However, they also offer a one year gold membership subscription for $49. This includes all existing modules, and any that are created during the year. I really didn’t need the modules that taught Bonzi more jokes, songs and facts. I also didn’t want to talk to Bonzi; so I didn’t need the talking module. Consequently, I decided just to buy the email module, which was priced at $19.95. Guess what? I can’t find a link to buy JUST the email module. The only link I can find is for the gold member subscription.

Guess what else? In small print, Bonzi proudly announces that they will automatically renew my subscription each year by charging the credit card that I supply to order him. No thank you. Although I assume there is a way to opt out of annual renewals, Bonzi hasn’t done much to invoke my trust in him. Therefore, although I would like to write a truly informative review about the full version of Bonzi Buddy, I must pass. It’s not worth the risk, even for you my dear Epinions reader.

The free version would be fine and fun for kids to play with, except he even annoys kids. At least 33% of everything he says is a request for you to buy new modules. In addition, Bonzi Buddy does it’s dead-level best to take over your browser homepage and set it to Bonzi.com. He comes across like a friend selling Amway, and you’ll want him off your computer just as fast as you want your salesman friend out of your house.

My final recommendation to you is to NEVER download and/or install Bonzi Buddy. It is nothing but animated Spam.

My Grape Mistake
by sweetycaroline | Jul 29 '01
Pros: Cute character
Cons: nearly lost my PC because of it
The Bottom Line: I recommend that unless you want to punish your computer - forget this .
Recommended: No
This computer software is supposed to catch a handsome $40.00 . Today , I got an e-mail stating I could down load it for free from a freebies site I subscribed to . I got it for free . Now , a crashed PC later I will fondly remember this as my grape mistake .

This review will not be very helpful in information on what the buddy can do because I was not able to use it long before it crashed my computer . What will make this review very helpful is to inform the user that at least the free download version is bugged . I do not know if you buy the software if it will crash your PC or not .

What The Character Looks Like
_______________________________________

This will be ever so easy to get the facts right on . This purple gorilla will be in all my PC nightmares from here out . He is really very adorable . He is cartoon in appearance and appears 3-D on your screen . I must admit I was charmed by his antics to plea for my attention . He swang to and fro on a jungle vine with smaller and larger effects to make him look like he was getting further or closer . He would whip out dark sunshades to look cool . Oh he was the most two faced dear ! Had he not given me the scare of my computer life , I would have fondly allowed him to tag all my web pages ..... forever . ( sniff , sniff )

What He Does
____________________________________________________________

Ruin your computer ! Oh wait , I think I have said that already . Ok , in the very few hours I spent with my stab you in the back friend , this is what I know . He tells jokes . Cheesy ones like - Why are fish so smart ? Because they are always in a school ! Then he will laugh or wink about his joke . You personalize him with your name so when he speaks to you he calls you by name . He tells interesting facts . These were really interesting . He did a good job there . You make him better suited to you by adjusting how much he talks and so forth . He can also sing one song . You can pay for the Gold membership that is $9.99 a month or $89 a year to make him learn more things . You can even talk to him and he responds . Regularly , he can e-mail for you with his expressions sent in it . With the Gold you make him read your mail to you . His speech is a bit slurred though and his singing is out of tune . What more can you expect from a robot I ask? He also does searches . The more I used him the more he was supposed to learn .

Odds and Ends
____________________________________________________________

The Bonzi's homepage was on Lycos . I do not know if Lycos is usually associated with it or not . They gave me my lethal version though . The down load time took nearly two hours . I think this was short because at first it was showing an estimated wait of 7 hours . I got to play with mine all of 20 minutes before my computer started freezing and overall acting crazy . The computer was literally screaming and every time I tried to get on the net it was saying I was performing an illegal option . So , it looks like my new purple friend was an ex con at some point and now the FBI is looking for him .

In Closing
____________________________________________________________

Unless you are a computer expert or can afford to have your PC looked at . Avoid him . There has to be a version that works for anyone to have liked this . Read some other opinions here before getting it and find where the people that are happy got their's . He was after all - very cute .....

Thanks for reading - sweetycaroline

Bonzi Buddy: Turn On Computer, Let The Ape Appear, Right Click, Hit Close
by naphtalia | Dec 24 '00 (Updated Jun 29 '01)

Pros: will tell you how to say words
Cons: interrupts real work, distracting, stupid, annoying....
The Bottom Line: I thought purple dinosaurs on tv were annoying! Purple apes on a computer are worse!
Recommended: No
The title of this review is what I do whenever I use the computer in the English room at the elementary school where I teach in Israel. Our Bonzi has been set up to help children with English. I don't know whose idea this was, but it doesn't work.

Bonzi surfs and swings in while the students are working, and across things that they are reading. This is very disturbing, especially to youngsters who are trying to learn to read. There is a nice function in which a child can type in a word and Buddy will say it back to them with the correct pronunciation - provided he knows the word or can work it out phonetically. For the children with whom I'm working, the majority of words will be there.

Bonzi also tells jokes and sings on command, or sometimes just because he wants to.

I don't find Bonzi useful. There are other programs that will say a word if it's typed in.

Most annoying to me is that Bonzi keeps coming on and telling me about updates on his page. I don't mind seeing these when I log on, but if I say I don't want to see them, I don't want more reminders coming up while I or my students are working on the computer.

I hope Bonzi wipes out on his surfboard or that the vine he swings on breaks. I hate this program! If it was up to me, I would get it off the computer in our English room. Unfortunately, it's not and so I just have to remember to turn him off before I let the kids get on.

If you want cute animals on your monitor, get e-sheep.

Please Pass the Parrot Pate
by pogomom | Jan 25 '00 (Updated Jan 25 '00)

Pros: The uninstall application works well.
Cons: I wasted time, precious time, on this program.
Recommended: No
Pondering Peedy's Passing With apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson:

I had a little parrot that lived within my screen, And what can be the use of him is more than I have seen, He taunts me every moment, He’s a Henny Youngman clone, I think I was so much happier when I was all alone.

One morning very early, before the sun had dawned, I woke from sleep upon my chair to Peedy’s toonish yawn, Now, this crazy little avatar, like an errant love that lingers, Cracked one bad joke too many and was deleted by these fingers.

I confess. I killed Peedy the Parrot. A premeditated action but in no way a crime, I feel no remorse. Blowing away that menace to cyber-society was an act of pure revenge. Ridding my domain of the insidious little bugger gave a completely new definition to the word ‘uninstall.’ I feel free for the first time since becoming victim to that molting demon masquerading as a benign birdie-buddy.

Peedy was the brainchild of the not so poor but simple software designers at Bonzi.com. His promises of being a friend and traveling companion for me as I surfed the Internet Superhighway fell short. This sinister little hitchhiker insinuated himself into my browser in a takeover reminiscent of Jesse Ventura’s dealings with the Independent Party in Minnesota.

The mad scientists who created Peedy, the BonziBUDDY, neglected to consider the fact that offering a free though limited trial version of this irritating add-on would in no way enhance their bottom-line. At least my wallet remained intact even with the constant hard sell and kidnapping efforts of this artificially intelligent birdbrain. “Kidnapping?” you ponder? Oh yes, dear innocent reader, the programming behind Peedy’s miniscule form is set to whisk you away to the apropos Bonzi.com web site the moment you test any of his features. Not a one-time reaction, each click on his menu presents the user with not only the desired effect but a full blown sales pitch along with visual effects and a web page to close the deal.

The desire to download any other software from the Bonzi Software web site diminished greatly by my experience with Peedy. I imagine Bonzi’s connection accelerator, Internet Boost ’99; secure web utility, Internet Alert ’99; and Voice E-Mail 4.0 for Windows perform as promised. In fact, Peedy performs precisely as advertised which is the problem.

Bonzi touts Peedy as an interactive friend and traveling companion on the Internet. If my friend talked that much in that tone of voice, I doubt if we would travel anywhere together, much less surf the net in tandem. Should Peedy truly be an example of the future of the Internet, the prospects look bleak.

Peedy’s artificial intelligence affords him the opportunity to learn your likes and dislikes. Armed with this knowledge, Peedy searches the web (and gobbles up memory) and reports back with news of web sites that meet your interests. The bird also makes periodic newscasts of breaking news if you choose to enable that option. Breaking news, in the case of Peedy the perplexing Parrot, consisted of announcements of new web sites and repeated reports of upgrades available for his own software. In addition, I feel that Peedy popped up with his revelations at inopportune times. I have enough trouble retaining my train of thought without the parrot from hell plopping down and singing, “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true…”

I found the BonziBUDDY concept appealing until spending time with Peedy. The distracting caricature might have been cause for minor applause had the darned thing not been programmed to sing, tell corny jokes and promote itself in a shameless display of crass commercialism. Even Rocky, the adorable doggy critter residing in my Office Suite, never once had the audacity to pimp for Microsoft.

The premise of a helpful Internet assistant tracking personal interests, reading web page text, serving as an animated appointment book and task scheduler, announcing news, offering tips and tricks, warning of impending virus activity and containing a comprehensive search feature is attractive. The parrot package also struck me as unique. On the down side, the program failed to enhance my Internet experience. The character exasperated me to the point that I could hardly wait to get it off my hard drive. What sounded like an entertaining and beneficial aid in surfing the web ended up using too much of my system resources and causing conflicts with other resident programs.

Bonzi Software presently offers the full version of the BonziBUDDY free on their web site. I would venture a guess that the angry feedback from those trying the previous limited no-cost version gave Peedy’s developers pause for thought. I considered downloading the full version for purposes of testing the program for this review. Unfortunately, the auto-download page froze my browser on two separate attempts so any interested parties must fend for themselves.

Minimum System Requirements:

16 MB of RAM
11 MB of Free Hard Disk Space
Sound Card (no specs listed)
Windows Operating Systems 95/98/NT 4.0
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.02 or above (Not Netscape)

The judges' ruling of justifiable homicide in the death of Peedy made a free woman of me. Your attendance is requested at a service for the deceased this coming Friday. In lieu of flowers, please send updated components to the charity of my choice.

Yakkety Here, Yakkety There, Yakkety Yakking Everywhere!
by DoggieLove | Jul 04 '00
Pros: trivia, nice smile, compliments you, greets you
Cons: talks way too much, corny jokes, waste of time
Recommended: No
I discovered Bonzi Buddy 2 months ago, May to be exact, through a banner ad. Right now, you can't find this purple gorilla on my computer. I HAD to delete him!

What is this, err, Purple Gorilla & What I Don't Like About Him BonziBUDDY is a purple gorilla who is meant to be your buddy. He tells jokes, sings, talks, walks, downloads and eats bananas.

Bonzi speaks English, which is good, BUT...HE TALKS TO MUCH! Yakkety Yak, blah blah blah, chit-chat! I get very annoyed especially if I'm trying to concentrate real hard, then out pops a speech bubble and he talks his heart out!!

He will say jokes, but they're corny. Don't look at me for one, I don't remember one! First he tells you a joke, laughs by himself (a monotonous ha-ha) and says something like "I'm funny aren't I? Why don't you order an expansion pack for me so I will tell you more?" NO WAY am I spending $14.99 on those jokes...

The trivia is also repetitive. After he says three pieces of trivia, he'll say, "Why don't you send me to school?". If you click the yes, it'll send you to a page where you order another one of those expansion packs (yes, for 14.99). Horribly annoying! This guy just keeps on telling you to order, order, order.

Bonzi is also supposed to tell stories. HE DOESN'T, unless you order another expansion pack.

As for the download helper, I wasn't able to use it. The download helper just made things worse for me - everything I downloaded couldn't be found, I don't know - everything just go so messy. I prefer the regular download.

What's even worse is that he slows down your computer. Picture this: You're typing a very good epinion where you're really concentrated, then all of a sudden, your screen freezes, you can't type, you can't move your mouse - YOUR COMPUTER GETS STUCK UP, all because he wanted to talk! This is what usually happens to me, I completely hate it when this happens.

>-->-->-->-->-->-->-->--<--<--<--<--<

The Good Stuff
He might seem like a complete pain in the neck to you, right? Let me tell you something: I'm not against him and I don't hate him.

Bonzi is pretty cute. I like it when he wears his sunglasses and smiles. :) It's also cool because he can pronounce any word that you type. When you turn on your BonziBuddy, he also says, "Good Morning, Regina" or "Nice to see You Today, Regina". OH yeah, he can say the sweetest word in the world to you - your name.

He sings also pretty much in tune for a gorilla! He can sing "Happy Birthday" and "A Bicycle Built for Two".

<-->--<-->--<-->--<-->--<-->--<-->--<-->

OVERALL COMMENT
Overall, Bonzi is not worth downloading. He's just a waste of your time and slows down your computer. You will be sure to click the "Uninstall" button after three days. I did.

Let me give you the bird....
by kerilee | Apr 26 '00
Pros: It can say your name.
Cons: Drove me up the wall with the constant chattering!
Recommended: No
Let me give you the bird....

That's what one of my friends asked me one afternoon. She explained that she had just downloaded this program that has a little bird named Peedy the Parrot that sits on your computer screen and he "gets to know you", calls you by name and reminds you of appointments when you tell it to.

I thought how cute! I'll try it. It's free why not? Here's why not! First of all it takes 45 minutes to get it going. It's not the download that takes that long it's the install and it takes up alot of space. 2nd if you want the whole kit-n-kaboodle it costs extra. You can get an extra download for the bird which lets him go to school to learn more. Why you would want to do this I'm not sure?!

After I got the little guy installed it asked me my name I typed it in and off he went chattering away. Hi Keri, what would you like to do today! I thought, how cute it calls me by name. But that was short lived because the constant chattering drove me up the wall!! Brok! Keri would you like me to tell you a joke? Brok!! Keri Did you know?? Yes the bird knows trivia. Amazing huh? He also knows how to sing, he reads the web pages you go to, and if you don't pay attention to him he asks what's wrong. You can have him remind you of appointments and things you have to do. Great concept but it doesn't work. Do not rely on Peedy to get you there on time! I typed in call Joe at 2 pm to see if it would work and it didn't. (My friend who gave me the bird also had this problem. Always late) 2 o clock came and went and at 2:30 the stupid bird starts squacking and says Brok!! I almost forgot!! You have an appointment at 2 o clock Brok! Dumb bird. Hey! maybe that's why you pay extra for it to go to school! So he can tell time! I think I had him on my computer for a total of 6 hours before I totally uninstalled him.

The Bonzi Buddy's ad says he's "Your Best Friend On The Internet!" If you're that lonely you should really think about getting a new friend. This one is annoying!!

Love for sale....
by proudarmywife | Jan 27 '00
Pros: he is kind of cute, he flatters you
Cons: no real uses, costs money for good stuff
Recommended: No
My husband, in all of his love for me, is always looking for ways to make my time on the computer more fun and enjoyable. He was emailed a download from C-Net, and told me I had to get this bird. We went to the Bonzi site, and were amazed. This bird would tell jokes, amazing facts, and check and read my email for me!

I was even thrilled that it would track my internet browsing, and become "smarter" and help me find pages related to the ones I usually enjoyed. All of this for free.

Can you say fraudulent advertising? Oh yes, we downloaded the bird. He was cute. He talked, and connected me to the internet, and told jokes. He even used my own personalized nickname to greet me each morning when I logged on. I did find him cute and he did have some fun features, but if you want him to check your email, or find sites, or tell better jokes..basically if you want him to do what you were told he would do, you gotta pay for add-ons...multiple add-ons. I believe they were in the 20-30 dollar range for each one.

My daughter had fun with him though..you could type in a phrase and he would say it. What else did he say? He offered updates that did nothing, and he asked you to help him become smarter(ya gotta pay for that...)over, and over again. In the end I was very unhappy with this guy, he was useless. Only my 3 year old enjoyed him, and well...it was mommies computer, so he had to go. But he didn't go without a fight- 3 days before I decided to take him off, my system was so unstable, I had to do a partial restore, and it was the removal of Bonzi Buddy that made my 'puter happy again.

So, if you are looking for a computer companion, don't download this turkey in disguise..go to the pet store. A hamster may not check your email, but at least you don't have to pay him to treat you right!

Violet and Vicious
by s2roberts | Dec 17 '00
Pros: Nothing
Cons: Everything
Recommended: No
Although looking rather cute and cuddly, I guarantee this little THING, will make hell freeze over your pc. It doesn't seem like much of a threat, just something to help you plan and surf the web, but after a few days, you'll be sent you to a place one level beyond the nut house. Start with his voice, it's like he's never going to get out of puberty. It's squeaky, bumpy, rough you name it, any undesirable quality will do. I nearly burnt a hole in my speakers trying to get rid of his undeveloped vocal cords. Please, try and calm yourself. Problemo numero dos, es desirable internet connection. His voice is bad, this is unbearable. Some unknown desire to connect to the internet, forces him to severely screw up your phone line. Before I got a cable modem, my one phone line was hanging by a thread. His common dialogue of "Pease connect to AOL first. Once you're connected to AOL, click ok." gets repeated like a broken record, or worse. My whole family went nuts over an animated gorilla trying to get you online. On top of that, once you are connected, the only thing you can do is buy his Bonzi Software. Don't send him to school so he can learn over 500 new jokes. There's more, when you download other programs, having nothing to do with him, he pops up. Which brings us to our last problem, if cats have nine lives than gorilla's must have 900 because he doesn't go away. I've tried clicking on the "Goodbye" button hundreds of times, and went to the control panel to get rid of him there thousands of times, but it was not successful. My computer finally says that I have successfully deleted the Bonzi Buddy program, but yet there he is, on his stupid yellow surfboard, smiling and wanting me to connect to AOL. So, in conclusion, please don't make my mistake and download him, it leaves a permanent mark. You'll end up destroying your computer as well as your self-esteem. I beg of you.

Heard it ruins your computer
by stacymw | Mar 28 '01
Pros: The kid likes it, I hope she's not upset when it disappears.
Cons: Thank God. I thought I was the only one who hated this annoying thing.
The Bottom Line: Stay away from this one. It's a waste of time and space. It is the most annoying thing I've ever encountered. I think it causes problems with your computer.
Recommended: No
I've hated this thing from the start. Sure it seemed cute for about an hour, but then it was always in the way and extremely annoying. I'm still having nightmares about the sound of the monkeys' voice. My boyfriends daughter loves it(I don't know why, it's pretty useless and tells really stupid jokes). As soon as i'm done writing this I plan on uninstalling it. Hopefully, the kid won't even notice when she comes over to spend the weekend. Maybe that new Frogger game we got her will distract her. I sure hope so. The last thing I want to hear is 'where did my Bonzi Buddy go?'. However, when she came to spend the weekend last time she informed us that one of her school teachers had problems with her computer and when someone came to fix it, guess what the problem was? She said she had to have it removed in order to get her computer working properly again. Come to think of it, I recall a few occasions where I received error messages telling me my computer needed to be shut down due to an error in the Bonzi Buddy program. Lately I've been having a lot of problems with my computer(it seems like ever since I installed Bonzi Buddy these things started happening). I probably have to fix something at least 10 times a day. I have plenty of hard drive space left(at least 75% free) so I know that's not the problem. What is this thing anyway, some kind of cleverly created computer virus that attacks everyone unknowingly? As far as I'm concerned the sound of that monkeys voice is a virus to my sanity.

It will drive you bananas
by purplenetworks | Mar 04 '02
Pros: None whatsoever. No, really, none.
Cons: Makes you wish capital punishment was still legal.
The Bottom Line: I would prefer a weekend alone with Charles Manson in a remote log cabin with no means of communication and severe piles.
Recommended: No
Forget bananas, this will make you go ape-$h!t. I've seen poor software in my time, but this goes beyond even the dreaded Phone Tools of some years back. Like the proverbial wolf in sheeps clothing, the Bonzi Buddy, whilst masquerading as a "your very own friend and sidekick" who will "surf the internet with you" he is, in fact, a Judas-like tell tale who reports sites you visit back to his paymasters in the Soviet Union (OK, maybe not the Soviet Union).

Incessant advertising followed by reproachful looks should you choose not to peruse reccommended commercial websites made me loose my temper with my simian sidekick. But alas, no. It was not to be. Perhaps fearful that purple was the new color this season, the uninstall failed. No install.log file. Gorillas in the Mist my @"£$. Even Sigournay Weaver couldn't find sympathy for this offshoot from the manhattan project.

Anything in the startup folder? No, nothing so simple. I go to Program Files and delete all folders beginning with Bonzi and restart the PC. What's this? The Purple Philanderer has, Bin Laden like, eluded capture once more and here he swings once again, Indiana Jones style, onto my desktop with a voice that's a bizarre amalgimation of Britney Spears and Pee Wee Herman.

I vowed to erase him and did a search for all files beginning with bonzi. Deleted them. Deleted the Bonzi buddy shortcuts. Reinstalled it, then uninstalled it. At last! It's gone, you say, surely? Yes, friends. Gone at last. And so was my operating system. Next reboot I found it missing a .dll and subsequently crashed with a blue screen. Restore the registry? No joy. Still can't find the .dll, still blue screens. Safe Mode? Same.

Two hours later, I'm back up and running again. Be warned, this is not what it seems! The Bonzi Buddy is, in fact, an insideous plot by Saddam Hussein to distroy the computer systems of the western world. And is doing Greenpeace and that Gorilla charity no favours either.

* * * -End of posts.

Well, a couple of comments on the last post - I've heard the voices of Charles Manson, Britney Spears, and Pee Wee Herman...Bonzi Buddy sounds nothing like the last two, who have baby-like, chipmunkish voice quality. His voice is in fact, much more similar to that of Manson, but just imagine Manson in a drunken stuper or stoned out of his head and that's Bonzi Buddy. I think if Donald Duck's voice wasn't so raspy, he would sound pretty close to Britney Spears singing. In my opinion, Angelica from Rugrats is a deadringer for Britney's singing voice. Pee Wee just sounds like a 33 record of a male singer being played on 45. I'll give Pee Wee and Donald this much, they are cute cartoons. Britney tries too hard to be cute and comes off phony but that's just my opinion. I can make a cute little girl voice too if I want. But Bonzi Buddy's voice, and attempts at crashing my computer are anything but cute. And as for Manson...(shudder) Don't even get me started on the likes of him and others like him. For the sake of humanity's safety, the best thing that could happen is for him and others like him to die in jail.

-Indianna

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