100-558: Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of business, commentary, and satire. Adams worked in various clerical roles before he became a full-time cartoonist in 1995. While working at Pacific Bell in 1989, Adams created Dilbert ; by the mid-1990s the strip had gained national prominence in America and began to reach
200-483: A Coffee episode titled: "Scott Adams tells you how Kanye showed the way to The Golden Age. With Coffee." In 2020, President Trump retweeted an episode where Adams mocked Joe Biden . Adams offers paid subscriptions for exclusive content on Locals . In 2020, Adams said: "For context, I expect my Dilbert income to largely disappear in the next year as newspapers close up forever. The coronavirus sped up that inevitable trend. Like many of you, I'm reinventing my life for
300-531: A Rasmussen Reports poll which Adams said showed that African-American people collectively form a "hate group". The poll found that 53% of African-Americans agree with the statement " It's okay to be White ", while 26% disagreed, and 21% responded they were "not sure". Gannett , including its USA Today network (including the Detroit Free Press , The Indianapolis Star , The Cincinnati Enquirer , and The Arizona Republic ) also dropped
400-563: A graphics tablet . He also had spasmodic dysphonia , a condition that causes the vocal cords to behave abnormally. In July 2008, he underwent surgery to reroute the nerve connections to his vocal cords, and his voice is now completely functional. Adams married Shelly Miles aboard a yacht , the Galaxy Commodore , on July 22, 2006, in San Francisco Bay , in a ceremony conducted by the ship's captain. The two had met at
500-401: A 2022 mass shooting , Adams tweeted that society leaves parents of troubled teenage boys with only two options: to either watch people die, or murder their own son. He said his comments were inspired by his own stepson, who became addicted to drugs at the age of 14 and later died of a fentanyl overdose. Adams's comments were roundly criticized, including by James Gunn , who described himself as
600-858: A 98 percent chance of winning the presidency based on his persuasion skills, and he started writing about Trump's persuasion techniques. His pieces on this topic grew popular, so he started writing about it regularly. Adams soon developed this as a daily video presentation called Real Coffee with Scott Adams , distributed to Periscope , YouTube , ScottAdamsSays.com, and Locals , where he covered topics such as current events, politics, persuasion, and routes to success. Real Coffee with Scott Adams has featured guests such as Naval Ravikant , Ed Latimore , Dave Rubin , Erik Finman, Greg Gutfeld , Matt Gaetz , Ben Askren , Carpe Donktum, Mark Schneider, Steve Hsu , Michael Shellenberger , Carson Griffith, Shiva Ayyadurai , James Nortey, Clint Morgan, and Bjørn Lomborg . In 2018, Kanye West shared multiple clips on Twitter from
700-510: 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. 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 [his] customers", allowing him to modify the strip based on their feedback. Joe Zabel stated that Dilbert had
800-687: A celebration that your role in society is permanently diminished. And it's happening in an impressive venue that was, in all likelihood, designed and built mostly by men." Adams said that he temporarily endorsed Hillary Clinton out of fear for his own life, stating that he had received direct and indirect death threats ("Where I live, in California, it is not safe to be seen as supportive of anything Trump says or does. So I fixed that."). In late September, Adams switched his endorsement from Clinton to Trump. Among his stated primary reasons were his respect for Trump's persuasion skills, Clinton's proposal to raise
900-411: A chapter of life advice to Tim Ferriss 's collection, Tools of Titans . Adams has often commented on political and social matters. In 2016, he wrote on his blog: "I don't vote and I am not a member of a political party." In 2007, he suggested that Michael Bloomberg would make a good presidential candidate. Before the 2008 presidential election, he said: "On social issues, I lean libertarian , minus
1000-469: A different voice cast than the television series, with Washington -based radio personality Dan Roberts providing the voice of the title character. On December 10, 2009, the RingTales produced animations were made available as a calendar application for mobile devices. As early as 2006, Adams and United Media had been struggling to get a film adaptation of the comic strip off the ground. Adams envisioned
1100-478: A difficult qualification exam for business school and creating Dilbert ' s success. He states that the affirmations give him focus. He has described a method he has used that he says gave him success: he pictured in his mind what he wanted and wrote it down 15 times a day on a piece of paper. (This technique is used by Dogbert in a 1989 Dilbert strip.) Adams continues to live in Pleasanton, California and
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#17327829200751200-746: A drawing competition at age 11. Adams graduated from Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central School in 1975 and was the valedictorian of his class of 39 students. He earned a BA in economics from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York in 1979. He then moved to California and started work. In 1986, he earned an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley . Adams took Dale Carnegie Training and called it "life changing". Adams worked closely with telecommunications engineers at Crocker National Bank in San Francisco between 1979 and 1986. Upon joining
1300-400: A fan persuaded Adams to keep trying. He worked at Pacific Bell between 1986 and June 30, 1995, and the personalities he encountered there inspired many of his Dilbert characters. In 1989, while still employed at Pacific Bell, Adams launched Dilbert with United Media . To maintain his income, he continued to draw his cartoons during the early morning hours. His first payment for Dilbert was
1400-517: 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. Also known as Tina
1500-469: A former "violent teenager addicted to drugs [who] entered recovery with the help & love of his family". In January 2023, Adams announced that he was considering taking legal action against political cartoonist Ben Garrison for defamation , after Garrison published a cartoon that depicted Adams as pro- masking and pro- COVID-19 vaccines . Adams later suggested on a YouTube livestream that people unvaccinated against COVID-19 were less likely to contract
1600-414: 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
1700-468: A good chance you will be dead within the year", "Republicans will be hunted", and that "[p]olice will stand down", none of which ultimately occurred. On September 30, 2021, Adams had also tweeted, "My worst prediction of all time was 'If Biden gets elected, there's a good chance you will be dead in a year.' It was closer to two years. I missed it by 100%," which also did not occur. Adams has compared women asking for equal pay to children demanding candy. After
1800-510: A guest on podcasts including Making Sense with Sam Harris , The Tim Ferriss Show , The James Altucher Show , The Ben Shapiro Show , The Rubin Report , Real Talk with Zuby and The David Pakman Show . He has appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher , Commonwealth Club of California , Fox News and Berkeley Haas . Adams was interviewed for Mike Cernovich 's documentaries Silenced (2016) and Hoaxed (2019). In 2016, Adams contributed
1900-484: A gym in Pleasanton, California , where Miles was an employee and Adams was a customer. Adams was stepfather to Miles' two children, Savannah and Justin, the latter of whom died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018 at age 18. Adams and Miles divorced in 2014, and Adams said the two remained friends, with Miles moving only one block away after their separation. On Christmas Day in 2019, Adams announced on his podcast that he
2000-454: 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. 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
2100-414: A large influence on many of the webcomics that followed it, establishing the " nerdcore " genre as it found its audience. In April 2008, United Media instituted an interactive feature on Dilbert.com, allowing fans to write speech bubbles. Adams has spoken positively about the change, saying, "This makes cartooning a competitive sport." Adams was named best international comic strip artist of 1995 in
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#17327829200752200-437: A monthly royalty check of $ 368.62. Dilbert gradually became more popular. It was syndicated in 100 newspapers in 1991 and 400 by 1994. Adams attributed his success to his idea of including his email address in the panels, which resulted in feedback and suggestions from readers. Adams' success grew, and he became a full-time cartoonist as Dilbert reached 800 newspapers. In 1996, his first business book, The Dilbert Principle ,
2300-465: 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
2400-641: A post-coronavirus world. The Locals platform is a big part of that." Adams started Scott Adams Foods, Inc. in 1999, which made the Dilberito and Protein Chef. He sold off his intellectual property in this venture when the product failed in the marketplace in 2003. He was a restaurateur starting in 1997, but exited that business. Adams co-founded the service WhenHub, which has been described by Gizmodo as "similar to Cameo ... except instead of pre-recorded messages from movie stars and rappers, it offers live chats with
2500-563: A range of subject-matter experts". In 2019, Adams briefly received negative media attention when during the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting he posted a tweet suggesting that witnesses download the WhenHub app and "set your price to take calls". He later apologized, saying the message was "poorly worded". As of 2024, the WhenHub website is inactive. Adams was a fan of the science fiction TV series Babylon 5 . He appeared in
2600-473: A series of comic strips in September 2022, Dilbert parodied environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) strategies. Part of the plotline involved a black character who "identif[ied] as white" and the company management asking him if he could also identify as gay. According to Adams, the week of September 19, Dilbert was pulled from 77 newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises . Adams also claimed that
2700-479: A worldwide audience. Dilbert remained popular throughout the following decades, spawning several books written by Adams. Adams writes in a satirical way about the social and psychological landscape of white-collar workers in modern corporations. In addition, Adams has written books in various other areas, including the pandeistic spiritual novella God's Debris and books on political and management topics, including Loserthink . In February 2023, Dilbert
2800-450: 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 . The strip's central character, Dilbert is depicted as a technically minded engineer. Until October 2014, he
2900-486: 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 counterintuitive "wisdom". Wally exasperates Dilbert at times but is also sometimes the only other co-worker who understands Dilbert's frustrations with company idiocy and bureaucracy. While Dilbert rages at
3000-668: Is active in the San Francisco Bay Area. Adams has received recognition for his work, including the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Award and Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 1997 for his work on Dilbert . He climbed the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) rankings of the 50 most influential management thinkers, placing 31st in 2001, 27th in 2003, 12th in 2005, and 21st in 2007. He received
3100-422: 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 led to 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
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3200-544: Is explained in Dilbert Newsletter #6. The strip has also popularized the usage of the terms cow-orker and PHB . In 1997, 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
3300-519: Is intensely intelligent but naive about corporate life; the shattering of his optimistic illusions becomes frequent comic fodder. He is Indian and 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
3400-418: Is quoted in the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson . Adams wrote a blog post in 2010 about Steve Jobs ' response to Antennagate , in which he says "Apple's response to the iPhone 4 problem didn't follow the public relations playbook, because Jobs decided to rewrite the playbook ... If you want to know what genius looks like, study Jobs' words." Jobs proudly emailed this around. Dilbert Dilbert
3500-464: Is reflected in their consistently acting as if these religions, and their threats of damnation for sinners, are false. In a 2017 interview, Adams said that his books on religion, not Dilbert , would be his ultimate legacy. In 2023, Adams announced in a pinned tweet that he had re-published God's Debris for free for his subscribers, and would shortly publish an AI-voiced audiobook version. In 2015, Adams wrote blog posts predicting that Donald Trump had
3600-550: Is the Frisbee . 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
3700-566: 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. A young intern, Asok works very hard but does not always get proper recognition. He
3800-894: 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. 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
3900-528: 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. Adams stated that it might be
4000-523: 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
4100-582: The Orwell Award in 1998 for his participation in "Mission Impertinent" for San Jose Mercury News West Magazine . Adams has coined several words and phrases over the years, including Confusopoly (businesses that stay afloat only by intentionally misleading their customers), the Dilbert principle (a variant on the Peter principle ), Elbonia as a term for non-specific overseas countries, and Pointy-Haired Boss (PHB) and Induhvidual as insults. Adams
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4200-460: The Republican nomination and the general election. In 2018, Adams similarly praised the persuasion skills of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez . In a blog post from September 2017, Adams described himself as being "left of Bernie Sanders , but with a preference for plans that can work". Of the 2016 Democratic National Convention , Adams said: "If you're an undecided voter, and male, you're seeing ...
4300-640: The Xerox corporation's use of Dilbert strips and characters in internally distributed pamphlets: Xerox management had recognized what more gullible Dilbert readers did not: Dilbert is an offbeat sugary substance that helps the corporate medicine go down. The Dilbert phenomenon accepts—and perversely eggs on—many negative aspects of corporate existence as unchangeable facets of human nature... As Xerox managers grasped, Dilbert speaks to some very real work experiences while simultaneously eroding inclinations to fight for better working conditions. Adams responded in
4400-551: The inheritance tax , and his concerns over Clinton's health. In mid-October, Adams predicted a Clinton victory would ensure that a male president would never again be elected. He has also stated that writing positively about Trump and supporting him ended his public speaking career and decreased his income by about 40% and number of friends by about 75%. Adams predicted in March 2020 that Trump, Sanders, and Joe Biden would all contract COVID-19 and that one of them would die from it by
4500-429: The "perfect cubicle", since many of the Dilbert strips make fun of the standard cubicle desk and the environment that it creates. This project was followed in 2004 with designs for 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
4600-597: The February 2, 1998, strip and in his book The Joy of Work with a sarcastic reiteration. In 1997, Tom Vanderbilt wrote in a similar vein in The Baffler magazine: Labor unions haven't adopted Dilbert characters as insignia. But corporations in droves have rushed to link themselves with Dilbert . Why? Dilbert mirrors the mass media's crocodile tears for working people—and echoes the ambient noises from Wall Street . In 1998, Bill Griffith , creator of Zippy
4700-549: 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 of
4800-457: The Pinhead , chided Dilbert for crude drawings and simplistic humor. He wrote, Long since psychically kidnapped by the gaudy, mindlessly hyperactive world of television, (readers) no longer demand or expect comic strips to be compelling, challenging, or even interesting. Enter Cathy . And Dilbert . Sure, comics are still funny. It's just that the humor has almost no "nutritional" value. In
4900-481: 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
5000-474: The Pointy-haired Boss. Alice is based on a woman that 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." 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
5100-577: 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 cannot be an easy one as none of their products work as designed. 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
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#17327829200755200-456: 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
5300-441: The Ziphead , in which Dogbert creates a comic by "cramming as much artwork in [it] as possible so no one will notice there's only one joke", and it's "on 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's Pippy
5400-517: The best-selling 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. In 2023, Dilbert was dropped by numerous independent newspapers as well as its distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication (which owns GoComics , from where
5500-515: The cancellation was coincidental. On February 22, 2023, Adams responded to a poll by Rasmussen Reports that asked respondents if they agreed with the statement " it's okay to be white ", a seemingly innocuous phrase that the Anti-Defamation League said was being used online in 2017 as part of an alt-right trolling campaign and is associated with the white supremacist movement. The poll showed 53% of black respondents agreed with
5600-467: 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. When UPN declined to renew the series for its third season, Adams stated, "I lost my TV show for being white when UPN decided it would focus on an African-American audience." Adams wrote on Twitter in 2020. "That
5700-629: The comic strip within the corporate sector led to the Dilbert character being used in many business magazines and publications, including several appearances on the cover of Fortune Magazine . Many newspapers ran 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. Media analyst Norman Solomon and cartoonist Tom Tomorrow said Adams's caricatures of corporate culture seem to project empathy for white-collar workers, but
5800-465: The comic was also removed), after Adams published a video where he called Black Americans that disagreed with " It's okay to be white " a "hate group" and said white Americans should "get the hell away from" them. The video was widely described by sources such as The Economist and Reuters as containing "racist comments" and being a "racist rant". Adams has stated during the controversy that he disavows racism. The following month, Adams relaunched
5900-399: The company is bald and has an extremely tall, somewhat pointed cranium. He is only slightly less clueless than the Pointy-Haired Boss. 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
6000-446: 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 devil horns. One of
6100-532: The crazy stuff." In December 2011, he said that if he were president, he would do whatever Bill Clinton advised him to do because that "would lead to policies that are a sensible middle ground". On October 17, 2012, he wrote, "While I don't agree with Romney 's positions on most topics, I'm endorsing him for president." During the 2016 presidential election, Adams repeatedly praised Donald Trump 's persuasion skills, and extensively detailed what he called Trump's "talent stack", correctly predicting that Trump would win
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#17327829200756200-552: The creation of a new product called the "Gruntmaster 6000". It was critically acclaimed and won an Emmy 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
6300-531: The disease than vaccinated people, despite evidence to the contrary. In a 2006 blog post, Adams questioned the number of deaths in the Holocaust , writing, "Is it the sort of number that is so well documented with actual names and perhaps a Nazi paper trail that no historian could doubt its accuracy, give or take ten thousand? Or is it like every other LRN (large round number) that someone pulled out of his ass and it became true by repetition?" In 2018, Adams said
6400-399: The dysfunction of the policies of the company, Wally has learned to use the dysfunction to cloak, even justify, his laziness. One of the more competent and highest paid engineers. She is often frustrated at work because she does not get proper recognition, which she believes is because she is female. She has a quick, often violent temper, sometimes putting her "Fist of Death" to use, even with
6500-416: The end of the year; in December 2020, when all three men remained alive (although Trump had caught the virus), Politico named Adams's prediction one of "the most audacious, confident and spectacularly incorrect prognostications about the year". Adams received further attention in December 2021, in reference to his July 2020 predictions that if Biden were to win the 2020 U.S. presidential election , "there's
6600-778: The engineering division of Dilbert's company. 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 he 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 ineptitude, 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
6700-529: 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
6800-542: 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". 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
6900-437: 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." Dilbert principle Too Many Requests If you report this error to
7000-524: The idea as a live-action film, with Dogbert and Catbert as 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
7100-516: The idea that Trump had praised the white supremacists at the 2017 Unite the Right rally was "fake news". In 2023, he falsely claimed the rally was "an American intel op against Trump." On June 28, 2020, Adams said on Twitter that the Dilbert TV show was cancelled because he was white and UPN had decided to focus on an African-American audience, and that he had been "discriminated against". In
7200-515: The incident earned him an Orwell Award . By 2000, the comic was in 2,000 newspapers in 57 countries and 19 languages. His comic strips were adapted as a Dilbert TV series , which debuted in January 1999 and ran for two seasons on UPN . Adams served as executive producer and showrunner, along with Seinfeld writer Larry Charles . The show earned a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. On June 28, 2020, Adams asserted to his followers on Twitter that
7300-460: The incident, Adams said his remarks were hyperbole and that the stories reported about them ignored the context; he conjectured that nobody would disagree with his main points and stated he disavowed racists. Adams announced that on March 13, 2023, the strip would return as Dilbert Reborn on the subscription website Locals . Since late 2004, Adams has had focal dystonia , which has affected his ability to draw for lengthy periods. He now draws on
7400-461: The longest-serving engineers, Wally was originally a worker trying to get fired to obtain a large 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
7500-435: The most successful of them. Adams created Dilbert during this period of personal exploration. The Dilbert name was suggested by his former boss, Mike Goodwin. Dogbert, originally named Dildog, was loosely based on his family's deceased pet beagle Lucy. His submissions of Dilbert and other comic panels to various publications, including The New Yorker and Playboy , were not published, but an inspirational letter from
7600-429: The move came after strips joked that reparations for slavery could be claimed by underperforming office workers. In February 2023, hundreds of newspapers owned by media conglomerates including Andrews McMeel Syndication dropped the comic in response to a YouTube video published by Adams on February 22, 2023, during which he advised white people to "get the hell away from black people " following publication of
7700-429: The newspaper's standards. In response, Adams announced that on March 16, 2023, he would launch Dilbert Reborn on the subscription website Locals , describing it as "spicier than the original". The comic strip originally revolved around the character Dilbert and his "pet" dog Dogbert in their home. Many early plots revolved around Dilbert's engineer nature, bizarre inventions, and megalomaniacal ambitions. Later,
7800-592: The office structure of Dilbert , with Hörnell doing an emulation of Adams's cartooning style. 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
7900-416: 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
8000-464: The organization, he first worked as a teller . After four months in which he was twice held up at gunpoint, he entered a management training program. His positions included management trainee, computer programmer, budget analyst, commercial lender, product manager, and supervisor. He later shifted to work at Pacific Bell . To devote time to developing a new career, he woke up every day at 4 a.m. and spent time at various endeavors; cartooning proved to be
8100-461: The phrase, 26% disagreed, and 21% were not sure. On a YouTube livestream of his Real Coffee with Scott Adams program, Adams, who said he was upset that nearly half did not agree, characterized black people as a " hate group " and said "the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from black people; just get the fuck away." His comments were widely characterized as racist. In response to these and other related comments, Dilbert
8200-534: The producing team. But in December 2017, in an interview by The Mercury News , Adams said that it would be impossible to make the film after his public support of Donald Trump . 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
8300-504: 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 Eastern 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
8400-473: 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
8500-478: The season 4 episode " Moments of Transition " as a character named "Mr. Adams" who hires former head of security Michael Garibaldi to locate his megalomaniacal dog and cat. He had a cameo in " Review ", a third-season episode of the TV series NewsRadio , in which Matthew Brock (played by Andy Dick ) becomes an obsessed Dilbert fan. Adams is credited as "Guy in line behind Dave and Joe in first scene". Adams has been
8600-427: The setting of most of the strips was changed 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
8700-606: The show had been canceled because he was white and UPN had made a decision to shift toward African-American viewers. In addition to his cartoon work, Adams has written books in various other areas, including self-improvement and religion. His book God's Debris (2001) lays out a theory of pandeism , in which God blows itself up to see what will happen, which becomes the cause of our universe. In The Religion War (2004), Adams suggests that followers of theistic religions such as Christianity and Islam are subconsciously aware that their religions are false, and that this awareness
8800-453: The son of Paul and Virginia (née Vining) Adams. He has described himself as "about half German" and also has English, Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Dutch ancestry. In 2016, Adams said he had a small amount of Native American ancestry, but later discovered via 23andme genetic testing that he does not have any detectable Native American genetic markers. He was a fan of Peanuts comics while growing up and started drawing comics at age 6. He won
8900-725: The strip as a webcomic on Locals under the name Daily Dilbert Reborn . Dilbert began syndication by United Feature Syndicate (a division of United Media ) in April 1989. On June 3, 2010, United Media sold its 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 , known as Andrews McMeel Syndication ) beginning in June 2011, where it remained until 2023. In September 2022, Lee Enterprises ceased running
9000-543: The strip following Adams's comments. Such major newspapers as The Washington Post , the Los Angeles Times , The Seattle Times , The Atlanta Journal-Constitution , and The Plain Dealer all ceased to syndicate Dilbert and published editorials denouncing Adams. The Los Angeles Times also stated it had removed four Dilbert cartoons from its pages in the preceding nine months when they did not meet
9100-518: The strip in what Scott Adams reported as 77 newspapers as the publisher declined to include the strip in a new comics page that was instituted throughout the company. He said that he had received complaints about Dilbert mocking the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, but that he was not sure if that was the reason for the cancellation. The San Francisco Chronicle , owned by Hearst Media dropped Dilbert in October 2022 saying
9200-463: The strips featuring him. 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". The entire country wears
9300-417: The tiny space allotted to them, daily strips have all too successfully adapted to their new environment. In this Darwinian set-up, what thrives are simply drawn panels, minimal dialogue, and a lot of head-and-shoulder shots. Anything more complicated is deemed "too hard to read". A full, rich drawing style is a drawback. Simplicity, even crudity, rules. Adams responded by creating two comic strips called Pippy
9400-439: Was dropped by numerous newspapers across the country, including the Los Angeles Times , The Washington Post , and USA Today -affiliated newspapers. Andrews McMeel Syndication , the distributor of Dilbert , announced on February 27, 2023 that it was severing all ties with Adams. Portfolio , his book publisher, announced it was dropping his non- Dilbert book that was scheduled for release in September 2023. In response to
9500-472: Was dropped by numerous newspapers and its distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication , after Adams published a video in which he referred to black people as a "hate group" and advised white people to "get the hell away from black people." Adams later said this was a use of hyperbole. Adams then relaunched the strip as a webcomic on his locals.com website. Adams was born on June 8, 1957, in Windham, New York ,
9600-415: Was engaged to Kristina Basham, and later revealed that they had married on July 11, 2020. Basham, a model and baker, has two daughters and is a vice president at WhenHub. On March 10, 2022, Adams announced on his YouTube podcast that he and Basham were getting divorced. Adams trained as a hypnotist . He credits affirmations for many of his achievements, including scoring in the ninety-fourth percentile on
9700-472: Was mentioned that being in Heck is not as bad as being in a cubicle. 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. The popularity of
9800-732: Was released. It expounded on his concept of the Dilbert principle . In 1997, Adams won the National Cartoonists Society 's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist and Best Newspaper Comic Strip. Logitech CEO Pierluigi Zappacosta invited Adams to impersonate a management consultant, which he did wearing a wig and false mustache. He tricked Logitech managers into adopting a mission statement that Adams described as "so impossibly complicated that it has no real content whatsoever". His writing in San Jose Mercury News West Magazine regarding
9900-659: Was the third job I lost for being white. The other two in corporate America." The four-disc DVD called "Dilbert: The Complete Series" was released and 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. 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. The comic shorts have
10000-409: 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. Dilbert's boss, known only as the Pointy-Haired Boss, is the unnamed, oblivious manager of
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