Dilbert

Dilbert, American newspaper comic strip that treated workday life in a large corporation. Dilbert became a cultural touchstone for many frustrated white-collar workers.

Dilbert, whose face is usually drawn with only a nose and a pair of round eyeglasses, is a disillusioned, mid-level corporate drone. He is at the mercy of his incompetent and amoral boss but can only mutter his dissatisfaction to coworkers, including Wally, a balding middle-aged employee who scrupulously avoids work, and Alice, who is continually frustrated and prone to fits of rage. The smartest person in the office may be Asok, a naive young intern whose capabilities are, of course, completely unrecognized by management. Dilbert’s canine roommate, Dogbert, an unrestrained megalomaniac, frequently appears as a high-ranking consultant.

The Dilbert character was created by Scott Adams to illustrate business presentations. In 1989 the cartoonist’s strip proposal was picked up by United Features Syndicate, though Adams continued working at his day job until 1995, writing Dilbert on weekends and evenings. Originally the strip centred on Dilbert and Dogbert in conversation at home, but reader response to the office-based episodes caused Adams to shift the setting.

Adams’s satire of corporate culture and office politics struck a chord with America’s rapidly growing white-collar population, propelling Dilbert to widespread popularity. Along with numerous collected editions of the daily feature and a short-lived animated television series, the strip spawned a vast array of merchandise aimed at adult professionals.