Poor Dilbert. He got erased from all our newspapers for strange and racist remarks. And hasn't been allowed back. There's no "paying the price" and getting to return.
As I looked through the most popular of his comics, the office context seems out of style now. COVID upended all that. I went looking to see what Dilbert was up to.
In 2024, he went onto Rumble - a right-wing online video platform that says it is immune to cancel culture. Because it is subscription-based, we seemed to have lost touch with him. He is still producing comics that we can find.
I found these from February 2024 and then April. What do you think of the 2024 Dilbert? Would we be looking forward to it each day in the newspaper? Maybe it is like Superman - where he might not get "old" but it gets old to us.
How old is Dilbert? He showed up on April 16, 1989. Today it is online and in 2,000 newspapers worldwide. There are many characters in Dilbert's world: Pointy-haired Boss, Wally, Alice, Dogbert, Catbert, Asok, Ted, Elbonia and Phil.
Let's go to 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". The entire country wears the same clothing and hats, and all men 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. It is an extremely poor, fourth-world country that has abandoned Communism. The national bird of Elbonia is the Frisbee.
Scott's Adventures 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".
Scott has his favourite 10 Dilbert comic strips of all time. They are HERE in a Financial Post article. Here's his #1 pick:
