Catbert

Dilbert is a satirical comic strip about a micro-managed office environment featuring the eponymous software engineer. The strip, created by Scott Adams, has run in newspapers since 1989, spawning several books, an animated television series, and numerous tie-in products ranging from stuffed dolls to ice cream.

Dilbert's success can be traced to its all-too-accurate portrayal of corporate culture as a Kafkaesque world of bureaucracy for its own sake: the boss has power, but no skill; the workers have skills, but no power - and as they learn that their skills are not rewarded, they become mere placeholders who see innovation as dangerous and count anonymity as success.

The humor emerges as we see the characters making obviously ridiculous decisions, and we realize that the artificial roles assigned to each member of the corporate culture often require us to do exactly the same thing.

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 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 Dilbert Newsletter #6.

The strip has also popularized the usage "cow-orker".

In 2001 Adams collaborated with IDEO, a design company, to come up with the "perfect cubicle". This was fitting 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.

Elbonia is a fictional third-world country that appears in the comic strip. Many of its inhabitants have beards, tall hats, and left-handedness; and the entire area is covered with waist-deep mud. Scott Adams created Elbonia in order to allow for a "foreign" aspect in Dilbert without using any specific country, in order to avoid a backlash by readers who may be from that region.

Characters

• Dilbert, an often powerless engineer, MIT graduate
• Dogbert, Dilbert's dog, who doubles as an amoral businessman with fingers in every pie, and has aspirations of one day ruling the world and enslaving all humans (and has succeeded several times)
• Catbert, the evil director of human resources
• The Pointy-Haired Boss, clueless and occasionally cruel, abbreviated by readers to PHB. The term PHB has become a generic for this type of manager. The PHB is notably smarter in the TV series. (See also the U.S. Army Acronym REMF.)
• Wally, a lazy coworker always trying to work the system
• Alice, a constantly on-edge coworker, having trouble controlling her "fist of death"
• Asok, a brilliant but naïve intern from India, IIT graduate
• Ratbert, a simple rat
• the World's Smartest Garbageman, philosopher and scientist, provider of solutions
• Dilbert's Mom, homely but intelligent
• Dilbert's Dad, an unseen character. He lives at the all-you-can-eat restaurant, because he hasn't eaten all he can eat yet, (technically not an unseen character, appears in the animated series)
• Bob, Dawn, and Rex the Dinosaurs (not extinct, just (usually) hiding)
• the Elbonians, the idiotic citizens of a mud-covered fourth-world nation
• Carol, the PHB's misanthropical secretary
• Tina, the brittle tech writer, feminist
• Stan, the all-too-slick marketer
• Mordac, Preventer of Information Technology
• Ted, the Generic Guy,
• Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light and ruler of Heck (a minor devil), and brother of the Boss. Rather than carrying a pitchfork, he carries an oversized "spork".
• Loud Howard, another coworker who, despite appearing in only one comic strip, became a regular character in the TV series.

Dilbert in Popular Culture

The popularity of the comic strip within the corporate sector has led to the character of Dilbert being used in many business magazines and publications (he has made several appearances on the cover of (Fortune).

It is the basis of a popular (though unproven) theory suggesting that the morale at a given workplace is the inverse of the number of Dilbert comic strips taped and posted at various desks and cubicles. A larger number of Dilbert comic strips reflects general frustration with the bureaucratic administration at the company; whereas a generally satisfied workforce sees less identification with the character of Dilbert, and consequently fewer Dilbert comic strips are displayed as mementoes.

The adoption of Dilbert as an icon for corporate America has led to Scott Adams being criticized in some circles for allowing his creation to be adopted and embraced by the very same corporate world he was rebelling against when he created the strip.

Dilbert Animated Series Episode Guide

Season 1	Season 2
The Name - 101 The Competition - 103 The Prototype - 102 The Takeover - 106 Testing - 104 Elbonian Trip - 105 Tower of Babel - 108 Little People - 107 The Knack - 110 Y2K - 109 Charity - 111 Holiday - 112 The Infomercial - 113	The Gift - 201 The Shroud of Wally - 202 Art - 203 The Trial - 204 The Dupey - 205 The Security Guard - 206 The Merger - 207 Hunger - 208 The Off-Site Meeting - 209 The Assistant - 210 The Return - 211 The Virtual Employee - 212 Pregnancy - part 1 - 213 The Delivery - part 2 of Pregnancy - 214 Company Picnic - 215 The Fact - 216 Ethics - 217

See also

• The Dilbert Principle
• The Peter Principle

External Links

• Official Dilbert website
• Comedy Central's Dilbert site
• Complete list of Dilbert characters
• A detailed treatment of the word Induhvidual
• Characters
• Searchable archive of text from Dilbert strips

Referenced By