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Dilbert
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Dilbert (first published April 16, 1989) is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character. The strip has spawned several books, an animated television series, a computer game, and hundreds of Dilbert-themed merchandise items. Adams has also received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1997 for his work on the strip.
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Dilbert (first published April 16, 1989) is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character. The strip has spawned several books, an animated television series, a computer game, and hundreds of Dilbert-themed merchandise items. Adams has also received the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1997 for his work on the strip. Dilbert appears in 2000 newspapers worldwide in 65 countries and 25 languages.
Themes
The comic strip originally revolved around Dilbert and his "pet" dog Dogbert in their home. Many plots revolved around Dilbert's engineer nature or his bizarre inventions. These alternate with plots based on Dogbert's megalomaniacal ambitions. Later, the location of most of the action moved to Dilbert's workplace at a large technology company, and the strip started to satirize technology, workplace, and company issues. The comic strip's popular success is attributable to its workplace setting and themes, which are familiar to a large and appreciative audience; Adams admitted that switching the setting from Dilbert's home to his office was "when the strip really started to take off."
Dilbert portrays corporate culture as a Kafkaesque world of bureaucracy for its own sake and office politics that stand in the way of productivity, where employees' skills and efforts are not rewarded, and busy work is praised. Much of the humor emerges as the audience sees the characters making obviously ridiculous decisions that are natural reactions to mismanagement.
Themes explored include:
- Engineers' personal traits
- Idiosyncrasy of style
- Hopelessness in dating (and general lack of social skills)
- Attraction to tools and technological products
- Esotericism
- Incompetent and sadistic management
- Scheduling and budgeting without reference to reality
- Failure to reward success or penalize laziness
- Penalizing employees for failures caused by bad management
- Micromanagement
- Failure to improve others' morale, lowering it instead
- Failure to communicate objectives
- Handling of projects doomed to failure or cancellation
- Sadistic HR policies with flimsy (or purely evil) rationale
- Corporate bureaucracy
- ISO audits
- Budgeting, accounting, payroll and financial advisors
- Stupidity of the general public
- Fourth World countries and outsourcing (Elbonia)
Characters
Dilbert in popular culture
The popularity of the comic strip within the corporate sector has led to the Dilbert character being used in many business magazines and publications (he has made several appearances on the cover of Fortune).
The Toronto Star (in reruns), The Globe and Mail, Montreal’s La Presse,The Gazette, the Florida Times Union, the Indianapolis Star, the Providence Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Brisbane Courier Mail, the Windsor Star, and San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications, run the comic in their business section rather than in the regular comics section, similar to the way in which Doonesbury is often carried in the editorial section due to its pointed commentary.
Criticism and parody
Bill Griffith, in his daily strip Zippy the Pinhead, used his strip as a forum to criticize Adams' artwork as simplistic. Adams again responded on 5/18/98, this time having Dogbert create a comic strip called Pippy the Ziphead, “cramming as much artwork in as possible so no one will notice there’s only one joke...[and] it’s on the reader.” Dilbert notes 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 the late 1990s, an amateur cartoonist named Karl Hörnell began submitting a comic strip parodying both Dilbert and the Image Comics series The Savage Dragon to Dragon creator Erik Larsen. This soon became a regular feature in the Savage Dragon comic book, titled The Savage Dragonbert and Hitler’s Brainbert (“Hitler’s Brainbert” being both a loose parody of Dogbert as well as 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' cartooning style.
In the episode of Family Guy, Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington, Peter comments on how the business world is funny. It then cuts to a scene where Dilbert and Wally are exchanging a joke:
Wally: Hey, Dilbert, what do you call it when a guy in middle management moves all the way to upper management?
Dilbert: I don't know. What do you call it?
Wally: A promotion.
Dilbert: Oh, thanks. Here's a memo.
At this point, Peter says "Well, sometimes the business world is funny."
A parody by Tristan Farnon, creator of Leisure Town, was entitled “The Dilbert Hole” and was a parody of Dilbert. The parody spread virally; sites had trouble hosting the comic during the height of its popularity, as United Feature Syndicate and its lawyers clamped down on it due to its use of the original Dilbert art.
A of Luann depicts Brad DeGroot holding up a Dilbert tie, evident by its signature curve.
In April 2008, dilbert.com used Adobe Flash and required Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X to be installed. After heavy protests, a flash-free version was created.
Dilbert has occasionally been panned for alleged "insensitivity" and off-color jokes, as documented by Adams in The Joy of Work. One of the most widely-attacked strips involved the Pointy-Haired Boss being saved in an airplane crash due to nuns being onboard ("You were saved by prayer?" "No, padding. They don't do a lot of aerobics at the nunnery."). The comic was published the same week as the death of Mother Teresa, leading to a huge backlash. His depiction of Elbonia has also drawn criticism from a variety of corners. In It's Not Funny If I Have To Explain It, Adams recounts having been attacked for the alleged political content of his work (he is a self-described Libertarian), although in the case of one such strip (where oil drilling kills an endangered species) he excuses himself by saying "I just thought the image was funny".
Language
Terms invented by Adams in relation to the strip, and sometimes used by fans in describing their own office environments, include “Induhvidual.” This term is based on an American English slang expression “duh!” The conscious misspelling of individual as induhvidual is a pejorative term for people who are not in the DNRC (Dogbert's New Ruling Class). Its coining is explained in .
The strip has also popularized the usage of the terms “cow-orker”, “splendsmartful”, and PHB. The word “frooglepoopillion” is occasionally used for an extremely large number, a word coined by the marketing department at the company where Dilbert works, in a strip where it was revealed that the company owed so much money that no word existed to describe the number.
Some fans have used “Dilbertian” or “Dilbertesque” to analogize situations in real life to those in the comic strip.
The lamentation "You had ones? Lucky you, all we had were zeros!", commonly used in IT industry, also originated in a Dilbert's comic strip.
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 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 replace their existing mission statement for their New Ventures Group, “to provide Logitech with profitable growth and related new business areas,” with “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 it creates. The result was both whimsical and practical.
This project was followed in 2004 with designs for (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.
Awards
In addition to the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards won by Adams, the Dilbert strip has received a variety of other awards. Adams was named best international comic strip artist of 1995 in the Adamson Awards given by the Swedish Academy of Comic Art.
Dilbert was named the best-syndicated strip of 1997 in the Harvey Awards and won the Max & Moritz Prize as best international comic strip for 1998. In the Squiddy Awards, Dilbert was named the best daily strip of 1996 and 1997, and the best comic strip of 1998 and 2000. The strip also won the Zombie Award as the best comics strip of 1996 and 1997, and the 1997 Good Taste Award as the best strip of 1996.
Media
Comic strip compilations
Books in bold indicate special compilations or original strips.
- Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons — April 16, 1989 (first strip) to October 21, 1989
- Build a Better Life By Stealing Office Supplies
- Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless
- Shave the Whales — October 22, 1989 to August 4, 1990
- Bring Me the Head of Willy the Mailboy! — October 5, 1990 to May 18, 1991
- It's Obvious You Won't Survive By Your Wits Alone — May 19, 1991 to December 13, 1992
- Still Pumped from Using the Mouse — December 14, 1992 to September 27, 1993
- Fugitive From the Cubicle Police — September 28, 1993 to February 11, 1995
- Casual Day Has Gone Too Far — February 5, 1995 to November 19, 1995
- Seven Years of Highly Defective People — 1997; strips from 1989 to 1995, with handwritten notes by Scott Adams
- I'm Not Anti-Business, I'm Anti-Idiot — November 20, 1995 to August 31, 1996
- Journey to Cubeville — September 1, 1996 to January 18, 1998
- Don't Step in the Leadership — January 12, 1998 to October 18, 1998
- Dilbert Gives You the Business — Collection of favorites before 1999.
- Random Acts of Management — October 19, 1998 to July 25, 1999
- A Treasury of Sunday Strips: Version 00 — 1999; color version of all Sunday strips from 1995 to 1999
- Excuse Me While I Wag — July 26, 1999 to April 30, 2000
- When Did Ignorance Become A Point Of View? — May 1, 2000 to February 4, 2001
- Another Day In Cubicle Paradise — February 5, 2001 to November 11, 2001
- What Do You Call A Sociopath In A Cubicle? Answer: A Coworker
- When Body Language Goes Bad — November 12, 2001 to August 18, 2002
- Words You Don't Want to Hear During Your Annual Performance Review — August 19, 2002 to May 25, 2003
- Don't Stand Where the Comet is Assumed to Strike Oil — May 26, 2003 to February 29, 2004
- It's Not Funny If I Have To Explain It — 2004; strips from 1997 to 2004, with more of Adams' handwritten notes
- The Fluorescent Light Glistens Off Your Head — March 1, 2004 to December 5, 2004
- Thriving on Vague Objectives — December 6, 2004 to September 11, 2005
- What Would Wally Do? — 2006; strips focused on Wally.
- Try Rebooting Yourself — September 12, 2005 to June 18, 2006
- Positive Attitude — June 19, 2006 to March 25, 2007
- Cubes and Punishment — 2007; a collection of comic strips on workplace cruelty.
- This is the Part Where You Pretend to Add Value — March 26, 2007 to January 5, 2008
- Dilbert 2.0: 20 Years of Dilbert — 2008; 576 pages, ±4000 strips, and Scott Adams' notes from 1989 to 2008.
- Freedom's Just Another Word for People Finding out You're Useless — 2009
Business books
Other
- Telling It Like It Isn't — 1996; ISBN 0-8362-1324-6
- You Don't Need Experience If You've Got Attitude — 1996; ISBN 0-8362-2196-6
- Access Denied: Dilbert's Quest for Love in the Nineties — 1996; ISBN 0-8362-2191-5
- Conversations With Dogbert — 1996; ISBN 0-8362-2197-4
- Work is a Contact Sport — 1997; ISBN 0-8362-2878-2
- The Boss: Nameless, Blameless and Shameless — 1997; ISBN 0-8362-3223-2
- The Dilbert Bunch — 1997; ISBN 0-8362-2879-0
- No You'd Better Watch Out — 1997
- Please Don't Feed The Egos — 1997; ISBN 0-8362-3224-0
- Random Acts of Catness — 1998; ISBN 0-8362-5277-2
- Dilbert Meeting Book Exceeding Tech Limits — 1998; ISBN 0-7683-2028-3
- Dilbert Book Of Days — 1998; ISBN 0-7683-2030-5
- Work—The Wally Way — 1999; ISBN 0-8362-7480-6
- Alice in Blunderland — 1999; ISBN 0-8362-7479-2
- All Dressed Down And Nowhere To Go — 2002; ISBN 0-7407-2931-4
- Dilbert's Guide to the Rest of Your Life: Dispatches from Cubicleland — 2007; ISBN 0-7624-2781-7
Merchandise
- Corporate Shuffle by Richard Garfield — 1997; A Dilbert-branded card game similar to Wizard of the Coast's The Great Dalmuti and the drinking game President
- The Dilberito, a vegetarian burrito with 100% Daily Value of 23 vitamins and minerals
- There was a line of Dilbert mints which had names along the lines of Manage-mints, Accomplish-mints, Perform-mints and Improve-mints.
- Dilbert: the Board Game — 2006; by Hyperion Games; A Dilbert-branded board game that won Games Magazine Top 100 Games.
- Day-by-Day calendars featuring the comic strip are available every year.
Animated series
Dilbert was adapted into a UPN animated television series, which ran for two seasons from January 25, 1999, to July 25, 2000. The first season centered on the creation of a new product called the "Gruntmaster 6000," including the idea process and testing by one Bob Bastard. The second season had no connecting story arc; plots varied from Wally finding disciples ("The Shroud of Wally") to Dilbert being accused of mass murder ("The Trial"). The second season 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. Featured voice actors included Daniel Stern as Dilbert, Chris Elliott as Dogbert,and Kathy Griffin as Alice.
New Animation
On April 7, 2008, dilbert.com presented its very 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.
"Drunken Lemurs" case
In October 2007, the Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington, Iowa, notified its staff that the casino was closing and they were going to be laid off. Seven-year employee David Steward then posted on a bulletin board the October 26, 2007 Dilbert strip 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 insurance benefits. However, in December 2007 an administrative law judge ruled that he would receive benefits, as his action was not intentional misbehavior. Scott Adams said 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 "which compares managers to drunken lemurs". Adams later said that fans should stick to posting Garfield strips, as no one gets fired for that.
Dilbert.com's Interactive Cartoons
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."
See also
External links
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