# Dilbert (Jan 10, 2023) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [January 10, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984 "2023-01-10T18:14:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/21 "2023-01-11T15:18:00Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Dilbert is still, in general, a look at the absurdities of corporate life (and sometimes geek dating). Offshoots into the nutjobosphere are actually pretty rare. Kinda like BC is a joke-a-day strip that occasionally veers Christian. Then again, I haven’t read BC in eons - it might have gone fully religious and I just don’t know. I’m more surprised the original author is still writing Dilbert. Jim Davis(?) is long gone from Garfield, I think, even if they put his name on it. At least that it is my understanding. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/22 "2023-01-11T16:11:01Z")
Some of his early stuff was really good. One that stuck with me more and more as I got more experience was one where a bunch of people are sitting around the table trying to advocate for their own solution to a problem, cut to the porcupine who expostulates “listen to me people, we must stick them with quills – it’s the only way!” Perfect. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/23 "2023-01-11T16:18:01Z")
> [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](#): > > Then again, I haven’t read BC in eons - it might have gone fully religious and I just don’t know. It hasn’t. I still read it every day, and aside from Christmas and Easter, it’s not religious at all. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/24 "2023-01-11T16:24:21Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Incidentally, Pacific Bell was his former employer I believe. This is my understanding. Back in the day I worked with a couple of developers, formerly of Pac Bell, who had worked with him. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/25 "2023-01-11T16:27:27Z")
It seems like Scott Adam’s divorce is what broke his brain. He took the Men’s Rights to MAGA path many non famous people have fallen into. It’s a shame really. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/26 "2023-01-11T17:30:06Z")
Fun, and useless fact: Scott Adams and I worked in the same building at 155 5th Street in San Francisco. In the early 80s he was with Crocker Bank before he got into Pac Bell. Then in 1986, 155 5th went from being Crocker’s datacenter to one of Wells Fargo’s. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/27 "2023-01-11T17:51:31Z")
The next day’s strip has a different hipster-type talk about “my company was bought by the most succesful businessman ever” so yeah, this arc is more about the general Twitter purge and that those purged probably had it coming. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/28 "2023-01-11T19:35:10Z")
To those who object to SA’s politics/personal views, do you research the viewpoints of all of the entertainment providers you encounter, and only read/watch/listen to those that mesh with yours? Or is it more of a matter that, once you learn that a creator is objectonable, you stop engaging with their work? And for those who think Dilbert is no longer funny, I’m not sure ANY of the strips in the paper copy of the Chicago Trib my dog brings in every day are constantly excellent, but Dilbert is probably of consistent quality as most of the ones I read. Probably more reliably funny/engaging than Doonesbury, whose creator’s politics align much more closely with mine. Certainly better than Hagar, Mutts, Broom Hilda, Blondie, Animal Crackers, Prickly City, WaMu, Peanuts… Of course, it is all just a matter of taste, so such statements are pretty silly. Apparently there is SOMEONE out there still reading Dick Tracy… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/29 "2023-01-11T19:38:05Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Apparently there is SOMEONE out there still reading Dick Tracy… To be fair, the Tribune apparently owns Dick Tracy, so they’re likely to keep carrying it as long as they think there’s any audience at all. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/30 "2023-01-11T19:46:44Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I haven’t read Dilbert in a very long time, but I don’t recall the strip doing cameos. Instead you have characters that represent archetypes, like “pointy-haired boss” or “guy who has to one-up everything you say” or “guy who hears you like something and gives you a nickname based on it and implies you’re obsessed with that thing”. > > This is “generic Twitter employee that was fired when Elon drained the swamp”. Adams is one step away from “talking duck who reveals conservative wisdom to the confused liberals”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/31 "2023-01-11T19:59:24Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > To those who object to SA’s politics/personal views, do you research the viewpoints of all of the entertainment providers you encounter, and only read/watch/listen to those that mesh with yours? It mostly becomes a matter of when their personal views starts getting in the way of their work. I started souring on Dilbert long before his MAGA period, when he started believing in things like the “Power of Positive Thinking”, and it showed up in his comics as a bunch of strawman attacks on skeptics. I mean, is this curent comic in any way funny? It’s like if you were really enjoying some singer’s new album, and halfway through, there was a track, “Fuck the Jews and the Blacks!” I expect that would give anyone pause. For others, I don’t actively seek out their opinions, but if they are sufficiently vile as to spontaneously show up on the news, I figure that’s the time to bail (see JK Rowlings, Kanye West, et al.) There’s so many decent people out there doing good work that I can’t buy everything, so why buy from the assholes? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/32 "2023-01-11T20:04:00Z")
Boy, it is funny. I’m pretty darned far along the left end of the spectrum, and I’m pretty sensitive to crap from the right. I REALLY detest the preaching some upthread seem to hand wave away. But I really do not see the consistent rightwing message from Dilbert that many of you claim. I guess I’m not sensitive/critical/sophisticated enough in my comic consumption. I’ll keep an eye out. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > To be fair, the Tribune apparently owns Dick Tracy, I had no idea. I actually picked up my paper to see which comics I don’t read. I was surprised the Trib contained no “realistically drawn” strips other than DT. No Rex Morgan, M.D. or Brenda Starr? Honestly, the Trib contains so few comics these days and so few of them are consistently funny. I skip Peanuts and the bottom 3 on the left page, and Mutts on the right. Of the remainder, maybe half of them (Dilbert included) are mildly amusing on any given day. We used to have a Far Side book in which Larson described a strip that was rejected for poor taste - one spider scared another and a string of silk had come out of the other’s butt. Seems so quaint. Hardly a day goes by without a poop joke or something. And I don’t generally consider myself a terrible prude… I guess Doonesbury is only in the Sunday paper. No big loss. As I said, it is not funny FAR more often than it amuses. And it too often relies on those too large blocks of too small print… > [@Horatius](#): > > It mostly becomes a matter of when their personal views starts getting in the way of their work. I started souring on Dilbert long before his MAGA period, when he started believing in things like the “Power of Positive Thinking”, and it showed up in his comics as a bunch of strawman attacks on skeptics. I mean, is this curent comic in any way funny? No, I see no humor in today’s strip - but I guess it could be considered amusing to some that “the most successful entrepreneur” in history caused such damage to a company. IMO, the bigger sin is that it just isn’t new. I’ll do a bit of googling to see if I can find “MAGA” Dilbert strips. Because I sure didn’t notice them. I’m a hardcore skeptic. But even that position can be taken too far, or lampooned for comedy. Strange I would nt have noticed such an offensive message about something that is terribly important to me. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/33 "2023-01-11T20:06:17Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Strange I would nt have noticed such an offensive message about something that is terribly important to me. It was quite a few years ago. It wasn’t a major series, just a few. But it stood out as particularly stupid at the time. ETA: you can find some of them here: [https://dilbert.com/search\_results?terms=skeptic](https://dilbert.com/search_results?terms=skeptic) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/34 "2023-01-11T20:09:54Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I was surprised the Trib contained no “realistically drawn” strips other than DT. No Rex Morgan, M.D. or Brenda Starr? They used to run Brenda Starr, even when it was well past its heyday; like Dick Tracy, the Tribune owned it. But, they finally discontinued that strip in 2011. From 1985 until its conclusion, the writer for Brenda Starr was Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/35 "2023-01-11T20:17:36Z")
Yeah - I guess I recalled MS wrote BS. She’s a pretty good friend of a pretty good friend. I saw some “offensive” strips on the Dilbert site. They sure didn’t strike me as all that offensive. My google search was not exhaustive, but generally when I spend 5 minutes and turn up as little as I just did, I suspect there isn’t all that much there. The panels that appeared the most in my search were about a black guy identifying as white, and use of nontraditional pronouns. Such topics certainly impress me as fertile grounds for humor, if not for the way some advocates propose applying them, then in a Michael Scott/pointy-haired boss style cluelessness. Like I said, I’m a hardcore skeptic, past subscriber to various skeptics/humanists mags - and the panels you link (going back to 92!) don’t offend me or suggest any horrible trend. I was as big a detractor of Trump as you could find, and I didn’t perceive a lot of MAGA messaging in Dilbert. Conservative/anti-media crap in Prickly City was why I stopped reading THAT strip. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/36 "2023-01-11T23:05:30Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I was as big a detractor of Trump as you could find, and I didn’t perceive a lot of MAGA messaging in Dilbert. I don’t know if that’s where it is, or if it’s out of the strips. He has written a good number of books and has written a lot on his web site. I used to subscribe to his newsletter a couple decades ago. (I can’t remember what it was called, it was kind of like The Straight Dope but with Dogbert in place of Cecil.) He wasn’t too nutty back then, and he was definitely right-leaning but then so was I. But he got into weird stuff like his Dilberitos (vegetarian burritos) and some goofy alternative medicine stuff which turned me off. These days I’m on the left and he’s far to the right so I doubt I’d enjoy any of that stuff. I do still love a lot of his old comics, I just haven’t read much lately. The one linked to in the OP is definitely political and not funny to me. That could be an outlier or typical for him. I’m not going to bother checking it out though. Just not interested. And it doesn’t anger me. There’s enough crap going on right now from real dangerous people on the right. A cartoonist is like a 0.05 out of 10 on my Concern-O-Meter. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2023, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/37 "2023-01-11T23:09:42Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > The one linked to in the OP is definitely political and not funny to me. Maybe we’re defining terms differently. How is the linked cartoon - criticizing Musk - “political”? Is this the same sort of argument as, ought we enjoy Wagner’s music? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/38 "2023-01-12T00:07:33Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > But he got into weird stuff like his Dilberitos (vegetarian burritos) Taking a shot at the rapidly growing vegetarian/vegan food market isn’t really all that weird, nor is the fact it failed; as the rich people on Shark Tank will tell you, trying to get shelf space for another food product is a Sisyphean effort, and yet people just keep trying. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/39 "2023-01-12T00:17:22Z")
BC was going pretty obnoxiously hard-Christian, but then the original author retired. IIRC, it’s now done by his son, who’s dialed it way back: You can still count on something Christian on Christmas and Easter, but other than that, it doesn’t really show. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2023, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984/40 "2023-01-12T00:23:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > BC was going pretty obnoxiously hard-Christian, but then the original author retired. Johnny Hart “retired” in the sense that he died at his drawing board in 2007. The strip is apparently now written and drawn by two of his grandsons. Also, [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)) has a paragraph on how the strip became more overtly religious in Hart’s later years: > [@](#): > > Late in the run of the strip, and following a renewal of Hart’s religious faith in 1984, _B.C._ increasingly incorporated religious, social, and political commentary, continuing until Hart’s death in 2007. References to [Christianity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity), anachronistic given the strip’s supposed setting and the implications of its title, became increasingly frequent during Hart’s later years. In interviews, Hart referred to his strip as a “ministry” intended to mix religious themes with secular humor.[[20]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#cite_note-20) Though other strips such as _[The Family Circus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_Circus)_ and _[Peanuts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanuts)_ have included Christian themes, _B.C._ strips were pulled from comics pages on several occasions due to editorial perception of religious favoritism or overt proselytizing. [Easter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter) strips in 1996 and 2001, for example, prompted editorial reaction from a handful of U.S. newspapers, chiefly the _[Los Angeles Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Times)_ and written and oral responses from [Jewish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew) and [Muslim](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim) groups who were offended that Hart would include his own Christian beliefs in his strip. The American Jewish Committee termed the Easter 2001 strip, which depicted the last words of [Jesus Christ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ) and a [menorah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorah_(Temple)) transforming into a cross, “religiously offensive” and “shameful”,[[21]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#cite_note-21) and accused Hart of promoting [supersessionist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersessionism) theology.[[22]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#cite_note-22) A 2003 strip depicting a character using an [outhouse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outhouse) with a [crescent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent) symbol on the front, slamming the door shut, and declaring, “Is it just me, or does it stink in here?” was interpreted by some as carrying an anti-[Islam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam) message. Hart responded to the controversy, saying “This comic was in no way intended to be a message against Islam — subliminal or otherwise… It would be contradictory to my own faith as a Christian to insult other people’s beliefs.”[[23]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#cite_note-23)[[24]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#cite_note-24) The _Los Angeles Times_ consequently relegated strips which its editorial staff deemed objectionable to the [religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion) pages, instead of the regular comics pages.[[25]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.C._(comic_strip)#cite_note-25) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dilbert-jan-10-2023/977984.md?page=3)