Bill Gates Takes His Antipoverty Crusade to the Nighttime TV Comedy Circuit

Bill Gates got serious about promoting his annual letter about his foundation’s work first by getting silly on late-night television.

Before Mr. Gates appeared this month at earnest gatherings of The Atlantic magazine and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, he sat with the affable Jimmy Fallon on NBC’s “Late Night” show in January.

The philanthropist and the funnyman then proceeded to brainstorm ways to promote the letter’s website, GatesLetter.com.

How about a viral video, Mr. Gates suggested.

Like what, Mr. Fallon knowingly wondered.

Mr. Gates then looked squarely at the camera and said, “Gates letter dot com.”

What followed was a rapid-fire succession of goofy images featuring Mr. Gates in different wigs—Dutch boy, Rastafarian, yellow fuzzy chicken—while he repeated the name of the website over and over until it morphed into a rhythmic, club-music staccato.

The video had 1.4 million viewers on YouTube.

It’s unclear how many of those people actually read the letter, “Three Myths that Block Progress for the Poor,” which Mr. Gates wrote with his wife, Melinda.

But the interest was probably more than from the other two more serious gatherings: None of the 12 videos that the American Enterprise Institute posted on YouTube from its March 13 interview with Mr. Gates cracked 5,000 views. The Atlantic’s video interview generated just 58 Facebook likes from the magazine’s website.

Maybe Mr. Gates’s willingness to go silly inspired President Obama to promote the Affordable Care Act on comedian Zach Galifianakis’ fake talk show this month. Mr. Obama’s appearance was approaching 3-million YouTube views last week.