Dilbert

''Dilbert'' is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Scott Adams, first published on April 16, 1989. It is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office with engineer Dilbert as the title character. It has spawned dozens of books, an animated television series, a video game, and hundreds of themed merchandise items. ''Dilbert Future'' and ''The Joy of Work'' are among the most read books in the series. In 1997, Adams received the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and the Newspaper Comic Strip Award for his work. ''Dilbert'' appears online and as of 2013 was published daily in 2,000 newspapers in 65 countries and 25 languages.

Publication history

''Dilbert'' began syndication by United Feature Syndicate (a division of United Media) in April 1989.

On June 3, 2010, United Media sold their licensing arm, along with the rights to ''Dilbert'', to Iconix Brand Group. This led to ''Dilbert'' leaving United Media. In late December 2010, it was announced that Dilbert would move to Universal Uclick (a division of Andrews McMeel Universal, now known as Andrews McMeel Syndication) beginning in June 2011, where it remained until 2022.

Themes

The comic strip originally revolved around Dilbert and his "pet" dog Dogbert in their home. Many early plots revolved around Dilbert's engineer nature, bizarre inventions, and megalomaniacal ambitions. Later, most of the action moved to Dilbert's workplace and the strip began to satirize technology, workplace, and company issues. The strip's popular success is attributable to its workplace setting and themes, which are familiar to a large and appreciative audience. Adams said that switching the setting from Dilbert's home to his office was "when the strip really started to take off". The workplace location is Silicon Valley.

''Dilbert'' portrays corporate culture as a Kafkaesque world of bureaucracy for its own sake, where office politics preclude productivity, employees' skills and efforts are not rewarded, and busy work is praised. Much of the humor involves characters making ridiculous decisions in reaction to mismanagement.

Characters

Dilbert

The strip's central character, Dilbert is a technically-minded single white male. Until October 2014, he was usually depicted wearing a white dress shirt, black trousers and a red-and-black striped tie that inexplicably curved upward. After October 13, 2014, his standard apparel changed to a red polo shirt with a name badge on a lanyard around his neck. He is a skilled engineer but has poor social and romantic lives.

Pointy-haired Boss (PHB)

The unnamed, oblivious manager of the engineering division of Dilbert's company. Scott Adams states that he never named him so that people can imagine him to be their boss. In earlier strips he was depicted as a stereotypical late-middle-aged balding middle manager with jowls; it was not until later that he developed his signature "pointy hair" and the jowls disappeared. He is hopelessly incompetent at management, and often tries to compensate for his lack of skills with countless group therapy sessions and business strategies that rarely bear fruit. He does not understand technical issues, but always tries to disguise this, usually by using buzzwords he also does not understand. The Boss treats his employees alternately with enthusiasm or neglect; he often uses them to his own ends regardless of the consequences to them. Adams himself wrote that "He's not sadistic, just uncaring". His level of intelligence varies from near-vegetative to perceptive and clever, depending on the strip's comic needs. His utter lack of consistent business ethics, however, is perfectly consistent. His brother is a demon named "Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light", and according to Adams, the pointy hair is intended to remind one of devils' horns.

Wally

One of the longest serving engineers, Wally was originally a worker trying to get fired to get a severance package. He hates work and avoids it whenever he can. He often carries a cup of coffee, calmly sipping from it even in the midst of chaos or office-shaking revelations. Wally is extremely cynical. He is even more socially inept than Dilbert (though far less self-aware of the fact), and references to his lack of personal hygiene are not uncommon. Like the Pointy-haired Boss, Wally is utterly lacking in ethics and will take advantage of any situation to maximize his personal gain while doing the least possible amount of honest work. Until the change to "business dorky" wear of a polo shirt, Wally was invariably portrayed wearing a short sleeved dress shirt and tie. Adams has stated that Wally was based on a Pacific Bell coworker of his who was interested in a generous employee buy-out program—for the company's worst employees. This had the effect of causing this man—whom Adams describes as "one of the more brilliant people I've met"—to work hard at being incompetent, rude, and generally poor at his job to qualify for the buy-out program. Adams has said that this inspired the basic laziness and amorality of Wally's character. Despite these personality traits Wally is accepted as part of Dilbert, Ted, Alice, and Asok's clique. Although his relationship with Alice is often antagonistic and Dilbert occasionally denies being his friend, their actions show at least a certain acceptance of him. For Asok, Wally serves as something of a guru of counter-intuitive "wisdom." For Dilbert, Wally is both someone who, at times, exasperates him, and at other times seems to serve as the only other co-worker who "gets" Dilbert's frustrations with company idiocy and bureaucracy. While Dilbert rages at the dysfunction of the policies of the company, Wally has learned to use the dysfunction to cloak, even justify, his laziness.

Alice

One of the more competent and highest paid engineers. She is often frustrated at her work, because she does not get proper recognition, which she believes is because she is female, though in reality it is likely because she has a quick, often violent temper, sometimes putting her "Fist of Death" to use, even with the Pointy-haired Boss. Alice is based on a woman that Scott Adams worked with named Anita, who is described as sharing Alice's "pink suit, fluffy hair, technical proficiency, coffee obsession, and take-no-crap attitude."

Dogbert

Dilbert's anthropomorphic pet dog is the smartest dog on Earth. Dogbert is a megalomaniac intellectual dog, planning to one day conquer the world. He once succeeded, but became bored with the ensuing peace, and quit. Often seen in high-ranking consultant or technical support jobs, he constantly abuses his power and fools the management of Dilbert's company, though considering the intelligence of the company's management in general and Dilbert's boss in particular, this is not very hard to do. He also enjoys pulling scams on unsuspecting and usually dull customers to steal their money. However, despite Dogbert's cynical exterior, he has been known to pull his master out of some tight jams. Dogbert's nature as a pet was more emphasized during the earlier years of the strip; as the strip progressed, references to his acting like a dog became less common, although he still wags his tail when he perpetrates his scams. When an older Dilbert arrives while time-traveling from the future, he refers to Dogbert as "majesty", indicating that Dogbert will one day indeed rule the world ... again, and make worshipping him retroactive so he could boss around time travelers.

Catbert

Catbert is the "evil director of human resources" in the ''Dilbert'' comic strip. He was supposed to be a one-time character but resonated with readers so well that Adams brought him back as the HR director. Catbert's origins with the company are that he was hired by Dogbert. Dogbert hired him because he wanted an H.R. Director that appeared cute while secretly downsizing employees.

Asok

A young intern, he works very hard but does not always get proper recognition. Asok is intensely intelligent but naive about corporate life; the shattering of his optimistic illusions becomes frequent comic fodder. He is Indian, and has graduated from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). The other workers, especially the boss, often unwittingly trample on his cultural beliefs. On the occasions when Asok mentions this, he is normally ignored. His test scores (a perfect 1600 on the old SAT) and his IQ of 240 show that he is the smartest member of the engineering team. Nonetheless he is often called upon by the Boss to do odd jobs, and in meetings his ideas are usually left hanging. He is also seen regularly at the lunch table with Wally and Dilbert, experiencing jarring realizations of the nature of corporate life. There are a few jokes about his psychic powers, which he learned at the IIT. Yet despite his intelligence, ethics and mystical powers, Asok sometimes takes advice from Wally in the arts of laziness, and from Dilbert in surviving the office. As of February 7, 2014, Asok is officially gay, which never affects any storylines, but merely commemorates a decision by the Indian Supreme Court to uphold a British-era anti-gay law, a decision which was overturned on September 6, 2018.

The CEO

The CEO of the company is bald and has an extremely tall, somewhat pointed cranium. He is only slightly less clueless than the Pointy-haired Boss.

Ted

An engineer who is often seen hanging out with Wally. He is referenced by name more often in older comics, but he is still seen occasionally. He has been accepted into Dilbert's clique. He has been fired and killed numerous times (for example, being pushed down a flight of stairs and becoming possessed), in which case a new Ted is apparently hired. In addition to this, he is often promoted and given benefits over the other employees. Ted has a wife and children who are referenced multiple times and seen on at least one occasion. Adams refers to him as ''Ted the Generic Guy'', because whenever he needs to fire or kill someone he uses Ted, but slowly over time Ted has become his own character.

Tina

Also known as Tina the Tech Writer. She has a less forceful personality than Alice and often seems to get taken advantage of by the other employees. Her job of writing technical directions for her company's software can not be an easy one as none of their products work as designed.

Carol

Carol is the long-suffering secretary (she prefers the title Executive Assistant) to the Pointy-haired Boss. Her hair style is a much smaller triangle than that of Alice. She hates her job, but once told Dilbert that spending time with her family of a husband and two children is like fighting porcupines in a salt mine, although when the job gets to be too much she is glad to get back to them.

Dave

Introduced in 2022, Dave is the strip's first black character, although he identifies as white, messing up the company's ESG and diversity scores, possibly deliberately, as it is not clear whether he is serious or not. Dave has proved controversial, with at least one newspaper chain deciding not to run the strips featuring him.

Elbonia

Elbonia is a fictional non-specific under-developed country used when Adams wants "to involve a foreign country without hurting overseas sales". He says "People think I have some specific country in mind when I write about Elbonia, but I don't. It represents the view that Americans have of any country that doesn't have cable television—we think they all wear fur hats and wallow around waist-deep in mud".However, in a storyline from November 21–26, 2016, Dilbert visits Elbonia. The only location seen is his hotel room and a car rental, neither of which are covered in mud. The entire country wears the same clothing and hats, and all men and women
have full beards. They are occasionally bitter towards their wealthier western neighbors, but are quite happy to trade with them. The whole country is covered in mud, and has limited technology.

Elbonia is located somewhere in the former Soviet bloc: A strip dated April 2, 1990, refers to the "Tiny East European country of Elbonia." It is an extremely poor, fourth-world country that "has abandoned Communism". The national bird of Elbonia is the Frisbee.

Phil

The Pointy-Haired Boss's brother Phil. His full title is Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light & Supreme Ruler of Heck. His job, one step down from Satan, is to punish those who commit minor sins. His 'Pitch-Spoon' is feared by those who do. He is known to 'Darn to Heck' people who do things like using cell phones in the bathroom, steal office supplies, or those who simply do something annoying. In one strip, it was mentioned that being in Heck is not as bad as being in a cubicle.

Ratbert

Ratbert is an escaped lab rat who lives in Dilbert's house. Ratbert was not originally intended to be a regular, instead being part of a series of strips featuring a lab scientist's cruel experiments. The character is often seen in strips set in Dilbert's home and is frequently a foil / co-conspirator in Dogbert's machinations.

Legacy

The popularity of the comic strip within the corporate sector has led to the Dilbert character being used in many business magazines and publications, including several appearances on the cover of ''Fortune Magazine''. Many newspapers run the comic in their business section rather than in the regular comics section—similar to the way that ''Doonesbury'' is often featured in the editorial section, due to its pointed commentary.

Criticism and parody

Media analyst Norman Solomon and cartoonist Tom Tomorrow claim that Adams's caricatures of corporate culture seem to project empathy for white-collar workers, but the satire ultimately plays into the hands of upper corporate management itself. Solomon describes the characters of ''Dilbert'' as dysfunctional time-wasters, none of whom occupies a position higher than middle management, and whose inefficiencies detract from corporate values such as productivity and growth. Dilbert and his coworkers often find themselves baffled or victimized by the whims of managerial behavior, but they never seem to question it openly. Solomon cites the Xerox corporation's use of ''Dilbert'' strips and characters in internally distributed pamphlets:

Adams responded in the February 2, 1998 strip and in his book ''The Joy of Work'', by simply restating Solomon's argument, apparently suggesting that it was absurd and required no rebuttal.

In 1997, Tom Vanderbilt wrote in a similar vein in '' The Baffler'' magazine:

In 1998, Bill Griffith, creator of ''Zippy the Pinhead'', chided ''Dilbert'' for crude drawings and simplistic humor. He wrote,

Adams responded by creating two comic strips called ''Pippy the Ziphead'', in which Dogbert creates a comic by "cramming as much artwork in as possible so no one will notice there's only one joke ... nd it'son the reader." Dilbert says that the strip is "nothing but a clown with a small head who says random things", and Dogbert responds that he is "maintaining his artistic integrity by creating a comic that no one will enjoy". In September of the same year, Griffith mocked Adams' ''Pippy the Ziphead'' with a strip of the same name drawn in a simplistic, stiff, ''Dilbert''-like style set in an office setting and featuring the characters Zippy and Griffy retorting, "I sense a joke was delivered. ..Yes. It was. My one joke. Ha."

In the late 1990s, amateur cartoonist Karl Hörnell began submitting a comic strip to ''Savage Dragon'' creator Erik Larsen that parodied both ''Dilbert'' and the Image Comics series ''The Savage Dragon''. This became a regular feature in the ''Savage Dragon'' comic book, titled ''The Savage Dragonbert and Hitler's Brainbert''—"Hitler's Brainbert" being a loose parody of both Dogbert and the ''Savage Dragon'' villain identified as Adolf Hitler's disembodied, superpowered brain. The strip began as a specific parody of the comic book itself, set loosely within the office structure of ''Dilbert'', with Hörnell doing an emulation of Adams's cartooning style.

Language

Adams has invited readers to invent words that have become popular among fans in describing their own office environments, such as "''Induhvidual''". This term is based on the American English slang expression " duh!" The conscious misspelling of ''individual'' as ''induhvidual'' is a pejorative term for people who are not in Dogbert's New Ruling Class (DNRC). Its coining is explained in ''Dilbert Newsletter'' #6. The strip has also popularized the usage of the terms "cow-orker" and PHB.

Management

In 1997, Scott Adams masqueraded as a management consultant to Logitech executives (as Ray Mebert), with the cooperation of the company's vice-chairman. He acted in much the way that he portrays management consultants in the comic strip, with an arrogant manner and bizarre suggestions, such as comparing mission statements to broccoli soup. He convinced the executives to change their existing mission statement for their New Ventures Group from "provide Logitech with profitable growth and related new business areas" to "scout profitable growth opportunities in relationships, both internally and externally, in emerging, mission-inclusive markets, and explore new paradigms and then filter and communicate and evangelize the findings".

To demonstrate what can be achieved with the most mundane objects if planned correctly and imaginatively, Adams has worked with companies to develop "dream" products for Dilbert and company. In 2001, he collaborated with design company IDEO to come up with the "perfect cubicle", a fitting creation since many of the ''Dilbert'' strips make fun of the standard cubicle desk and the environment that it creates. The result was both whimsical and practical.

This project was followed in 2004 with designs fo
Dilbert's Ultimate House
(abbreviated as DUH). An energy-efficient building was the result, designed to prevent many of the little problems that seem to creep into a normal building. For instance, to save time spent buying and decorating a Christmas tree every year, the house has a large (yet unapparent) closet adjacent to the living room where the tree can be stored from year to year.

Webcomics

In 1995, ''Dilbert'' was the first syndicated comic strip to be published for free on the Internet. Putting his email address in each ''Dilbert'' strip, Adams created a "direct channel to iscustomers", allowing him to modify the strip based on their feedback. Joe Zabel stated that ''Dilbert'' had a large influence on many of the webcomics that followed it, establishing the " nerdcore" genre as it found its audience.

In April 2008, Scott Adams announced that United Media would be instituting an interactive feature on Dilbert.com, allowing fans to write speech bubbles and, in the near future, interact with Adams about the content of the strips. Adams has spoken positively about the change, saying, "This makes cartooning a competitive sport."

Awards

Adams was named best international comic strip artist of 1995 in the Adamson Awards given by the Swedish Academy of Comic Art.

''Dilbert'' won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in 1997, and was also named the best syndicated strip of 1997 in the Harvey Awards. In 1998, ''Dilbert'' won the Max & Moritz Prize as best international comic strip.

Media

Comic strip compilations

Chronological

Special

Business books

* ''The Dilbert Principle''
* ''Dogbert's Top Secret Management Handbook''
* '' The Dilbert Future''
* '' The Joy of Work''
* '' Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel''
* ''Slapped Together: The Dilbert Business Anthology'' (''The Dilbert Principle'', ''The Dilbert Future'', and ''The Joy of Work'', published together in one book)

Other books

*''Telling It Like It Isn't'' — 1996;
*''You Don't Need Experience If You've Got Attitude'' — 1996;
*''Access Denied: Dilbert's Quest for Love in the Nineties'' — 1996;
*''Conversations With Dogbert'' — 1996;
*''Work is a Contact Sport'' — 1997;
*''The Boss: Nameless, Blameless and Shameless'' — 1997;
*''The Dilbert Bunch'' — 1997;
*''No You'd Better Watch Out'' — 1997
*''Please Don't Feed The Egos'' — 1997;
*''Random Acts of Catness'' — 1998;
*''You Can't Schedule Stupidity'' — 1998;
*''Dilbert Meeting Book Exceeding Tech Limits'' — 1998;
*''Trapped In A Dilbert World – Book Of Days'' — 1998;
*''Work—The Wally Way'' — 1999;
*''Alice in Blunderland'' — 1999;
*''All Dressed Down And Nowhere To Go'' — 2002;
*''Dilbert's Guide to the Rest of Your Life: Dispatches from Cubicleland'' — 2007;
*''Dilbert Sudoku Comic Digest: 200 Puzzles Plus 50 Classic Dilbert Cartoons'' — 2008;
*'' Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert'' — 2008; 576 pages, ≈6500 strips, and Scott Adams's notes from 1989 to 2008.

Merchandise

* ''Young Dilbert in Hi-Tech Hijinks'' — 1997; A Dilbert-branded computer game aimed at teaching young children about technology.
* ''Corporate Shuffle'' by Richard Garfield — 1997; A Dilbert-branded card game similar to Wizards of the Coast's ''The Great Dalmuti'' and the drinking game President.
* The Dilberito, a vegan microwave burrito offered in four flavors: Barbecue with barbecue sauce, Garlic & Herb with sauce, Indian with mango chutney, and Mexican with salsa.
* ''Totally Nuts'' — 1998; A limited edition Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor whose description was listed as: "Butter almond ice cream with roasted hazelnuts, praline pecans & white fudge coated almonds".
* A line of Dilbert mints that possessed the names Accomplish-mints, Appease-mints, Appoint-mints, Empower-mints, Harass-mints, Improve-mints, Invest-mints, Manage-mints, Pay-mints, Perform-mints, and Postpone-mints.
* Dilbert: the Board Game — 2006; by Hyperion Games; A Dilbert-branded board game that was named one of ''Games'' magazine's Top 100 Games
* Day-by-Day calendars featuring the comic strip are available every year.
* ''Dilbert: Escape From Cubeville'' — 2010; A Dilbert-branded board game released in the Dilbert store section of dilbert.com.
* ''Dilbert's Desktop Games'', a video game designed for the PC.

Animated series

''Dilbert'' was adapted into a UPN animated television series starring Daniel Stern as Dilbert, Chris Elliott as Dogbert, and Kathy Griffin as Alice. The series ran for two seasons from January 25, 1999 to July 25, 2000. The first season centered around the creation of a new product called the "Gruntmaster 6000". It was critically acclaimed and won a Golden Globe award, leading to its renewal for a second season. The second season did away with the serial format and was composed entirely of standalone episodes, many of which shifted focus away from the workplace and involved absurdist plots such as Wally being mistaken for a religious leader (" The Shroud of Wally") and Dilbert being accused of mass murder (" The Trial"). The second season's two-episode finale included Dilbert getting pregnant with the child of a cow, a hillbilly, robot DNA, "several dozen engineers", an elderly billionaire, and an alien, eventually ending up in a custody battle with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the Judge.

The four-disc DVD called "Dilbert: The Complete Series" contains thirty episodes. The first disc contains episodes 1-7, the second disc contains episodes 8-13, the third disc contains episodes 14-21, and the fourth disc contains episodes 22-30.

New animation

On April 7, 2008, dilbert.com presented its first Dilbert animation. The new Dilbert animations are animated versions of original comic strips produced by RingTales and animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios. The animation videos run for around 30 seconds each and are added every weekday. On December 10, 2009 the RingTales produced animations were made available as a calendar application for mobile devices.

Cancelled film adaptation

As early as 2006, Scott Adams and United Media have been struggling to get a film adaptation of the comic strip off the ground. Adams envisioned the idea as a live-action film, with Dogbert and Catbert as computer animated characters. Film director Chris Columbus was in talks to direct the film in 2007, with Tariq Jalil on board as producer.

In May 2010, it was announced that a live-action ''Dilbert'' film was in development. Ken Kwapis was announced as director, fresh off the heels of ''He's Just Not That Into You'' and directing several episodes for NBC's ''The Office''. Jahil remained as producer, with Phoenix Entertainment and Intrigue Entertainment joining the producing team.

In December 2017, in an interview by The Mercury News, Adams said that it would be impossible to make the film.

"Drunken lemurs" case

In October 2007, the Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington, Iowa notified its staff that the casino would soon be closing for business. David Steward, an employee of seven years, then posted on an office bulletin board the ''Dilbert'' strip of October 26, 2007 that compared management decisions to those of "drunken lemurs". The casino called this "very offensive"; they identified him from a surveillance tape, fired him, and tried to prevent him from receiving unemployment benefits. However, an administrative law judge ruled in December 2007 that he would receive benefits, as his action was deemed as justified protest and not intentional misbehavior. Scott Adams stated that it might be the first confirmed case of an employee being fired for posting a ''Dilbert'' cartoon. On February 20, 2008, the first of a series of ''Dilbert'' strips showed Wally being caught posting a comic strip that "compares managers to drunken lemurs". Adams later stated that fans of his work should "stick to posting '' Garfield'' strips, as no one gets fired for that".

Guest artists

On February 29, 2016, Adams posted on his blog that he would be taking a six-week vacation. During that time, strips would be written by him but drawn by guest artists who work for Universal Uclick. Jake Tapper drew the strip on the week on May 23. The other guest artists were John Glynn, Eric Scott, Josh Shipley, Joel Friday, Donna Oatney and Brenna Thummler. Jake Tapper also drew the cartoon strip the weeks of May 23, 2016 and September 23–28, 2019.

Notes

See also

* Dilbert principle
* Peter principle, the opposite (and original basis) of the Dilbert principle
* '' Plop: The Hairless Elbonian'', another comic series by Scott Adams

References

External links

Dilbert home pageThe Dilbert BlogNational Cartoonists Society awards page
*Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Presents His 10 Favorite Strip

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