Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton joined Bono, George Lucas, and a host of other celebrities in paying tribute to late Apple CEO Steve Jobs Sunday night, during a video presentation at the 16th Annual Webby Awards.
The ceremony began with a brief introduction from actors Justin Long and John Hodgman, who starred, respectively, as "Mac" and "PC" in Apple's famed "Get a Mac" ad campaign. They were followed by actor Richard Dreyfuss, who gave a strange and oftentimes discursive speech that began with a jab at Facebook and Google.
"If you're going to take our privacy away from us, why don't you tell us something private about yourselves," Dreyfus said to an awkwardly hushed reception. "And if you're going to change our world, why don't you pay for it, because it's theft." The actor, who voiced Apple's "Think Different" commercials, ended his address with a five-word tribute to Jobs, in accordance with Webby tradition: "Exception that proves the rule."
The real highlight, though, came during the minute-long video montage that followed. Clinton, Obama, and other luminaries took turns giving their own five-words of thanks, alongside a group of school-aged children who thanked Jobs for "making the classroom fun." Former Vice President Al Gore was also on hand to pay homage ("Steve Jobs was insanely great"), as was Bono, who praised the exec for helping to save lives with the RED humanitarian campaign. Other contributors included Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, Jimmy Fallon, and Arianna Huffington.
Obama, for his part, actually gave two tributes. The first kept within the Webby word limit ("Thank you for thinking different"), but to conclude the video, Obama acknowledged that he really only needed one word to describe the evening's honoree: "Amazing."