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Alice (Dilbert character)
Encyclopedia
Alice is an engineer from the Dilbert
comic strip. She is one of Dilbert
's co-workers in the department. She has long curly hair, which transformed into a large and distinctive triangular hairstyle when the character became a regular. Her character was based on a former colleague of cartoonist Scott Adams
.
, Alice's hairstyle became more distinct over time. More recent female bit parts have smooth, semicircle hair.
The first time that Alice could be seen with her typical pink suit and curly triangle hair was on August 25, 1992. In the summer of 2010, Alice's regular work uniform changed from her trademark pink suit to a white turtleneck and a black skirt.
in the company. At another time she was feted for receiving her fourteenth patent
. She stands in contrast with Wally
, who does no work and is rewarded nearly the same. Alice also suffers all the problems of being a female engineer. She has no tolerance for the discrimination she experiences. However, she also has little sympathy for other women who claim to be the victim of such discrimination when in fact they refuse to work as hard as she does. The revelations about her being the highest paid engineer at the company and the party for her fourteenth patent were responses to complaints from female co-workers about how they could not get ahead at the company.
Alice is fractionally more successful in her social life than fellow employees. She has dated numerous times, although Dilbert alluded to her having a family when Catbert created a family friendly policy, and she used to date a one-eyed carpenter
. She was almost into a committed relationship with an emotionally supportive man but turned him down at the last minute, as she decided it would be more cost-effective to train monkeys to do the same work. It was also implied that she had a child, but the idea was eventually phased out.
into his shirt sleeve and punched him into the ceiling, drop-kicked a computer off the building (killing a major customer), rigged a paper shredder to kill the department's resident "sadistic nut", ripped out a man's heart through his throat and sold it on the Internet (and later said he "kinda" gave her permission to do so by messing up one of her projects and then saying "it's better to seek forgiveness than to ask for permission"), accidentally crushed a man walking by her cubicle by throwing her computer over the wall, punched her fist clear through a co-worker's head when he wanted to ask a question at the end of an unusually long meeting, and once sling-shot a man with his suspenders so hard he traveled forward in time
. Adams once said that he tries to have her kill about one person a year. According to Catbert
, she has not been fired for this because she "Did not discriminate, sexually harass
, steal
or take drugs" (he then gave her an award for her "cost-saving idea"). Perhaps the best example of Alice's destructive nature is her brief encounter with Dilbert's creation, the Antimatter Dilbert
. When the Antimatter Dilbert explained to her that only a thin coating of "matterscreen"
kept him from being annihilated by matter
, Alice's immediate reaction was to test this, throwing her hot coffee onto him, whereupon the Antimatter Dilbert was indeed annihilated. Alice has mentioned that she is a Navy Seal.
On the television series, there are many instances of Alice injuring Wally, such as pounding his head down into his chest cavity, using him to clean up a coffee spill, stuffing him bodily into a copier, and punching a hole through a conference table so she could yank him face first onto it by grabbing his tie.
Alice has also thrown the Pointy-Haired Boss
a fairly long distance as a result of her annual performance review. After threatening to yank him out of his cheap suit and hurl his naked body down the hall, Dilbert and Wally noted that her distance improves every year. She occasionally claims to have superpower
s. She has also caused the head of the Inappropriate Comment Pig-Boy to explode by using curse words learned from her former boyfriend, the one-eyed carpenter. When the company moved to a high-crime neighborhood to save costs, she took it upon herself to mug
the company's executives to make them re-consider their decision.
In a comic that ran in December 2003 she was diagnosed with Carpal Punchel syndrome
and was forced to stop using her "Fist of Death" for two weeks (replacing it with the only-slightly menacing "Foot of Death".)
Occassionally, other coworkers would use her anger to their or the company's advantage. Once, Wally got her to bend a metal bar into a u-shape by telling Alice it was an award for Dilbert for "being male". In one 2008 strip series involving the company building killer robots, Dogbert
used his rumor-spreading technique to tell Alice the robots said her hair was unfashionable and she was overpaid, and thus she punched all the robots to death with her "fist of death".
Dilbert
Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
comic strip. She is one of Dilbert
Dilbert (character)
Dilbert is a fictional character and the main character and protagonist of the Dilbert comic strip. He is a white collar office worker who has a rare medical condition characterized by an extreme intuition about all things mechanical and electrical , an idea that was explored in the animated...
's co-workers in the department. She has long curly hair, which transformed into a large and distinctive triangular hairstyle when the character became a regular. Her character was based on a former colleague of cartoonist Scott Adams
Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams is the American creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, business, and general speculation....
.
Early versions
Before Alice became a regular character, there were a variety of generic fluffy haired women at Dilbert's Company. Many of them had bit parts and were only used one or two times. The name Alice was used at least once, in a series of strips where she was forced to give birth at the office. Some of these characters had personalities very similar to the later Alice; these characters eventually disappeared when Alice began to be featured regularly. Like the Pointy-Haired BossPointy-Haired Boss
The pointy-haired boss is Dilbert's boss in the Dilbert comic strip. He is notable for his micromanagement, gross incompetence and unawareness of his surroundings, yet somehow retains power in the workplace...
, Alice's hairstyle became more distinct over time. More recent female bit parts have smooth, semicircle hair.
The first time that Alice could be seen with her typical pink suit and curly triangle hair was on August 25, 1992. In the summer of 2010, Alice's regular work uniform changed from her trademark pink suit to a white turtleneck and a black skirt.
Problems and successes experienced
Alice is rarely rewarded for her hard work, although she was for a time the highest paid engineerEngineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
in the company. At another time she was feted for receiving her fourteenth patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
. She stands in contrast with Wally
Wally (Dilbert character)
Wally is a character from the Dilbert comic strip, a lazy employee always trying to work the system.-Inspiration:Wally was inspired by a coworker of creator Scott Adams at Pacific Bell...
, who does no work and is rewarded nearly the same. Alice also suffers all the problems of being a female engineer. She has no tolerance for the discrimination she experiences. However, she also has little sympathy for other women who claim to be the victim of such discrimination when in fact they refuse to work as hard as she does. The revelations about her being the highest paid engineer at the company and the party for her fourteenth patent were responses to complaints from female co-workers about how they could not get ahead at the company.
Alice is fractionally more successful in her social life than fellow employees. She has dated numerous times, although Dilbert alluded to her having a family when Catbert created a family friendly policy, and she used to date a one-eyed carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
. She was almost into a committed relationship with an emotionally supportive man but turned him down at the last minute, as she decided it would be more cost-effective to train monkeys to do the same work. It was also implied that she had a child, but the idea was eventually phased out.
Alice's violent nature
Alice has a short temper. Her anger is frequently expressed in physical violence, most often manifested in the form of her "Fist of Death". In the comic strip she has, among other things, kicked an Elbonian into his own hat, stuffed AsokAsok (Dilbert character)
Asok is an Indian intern in the Dilbert comic strip. His first appearance was March 18, 1996. He is a brilliant graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology....
into his shirt sleeve and punched him into the ceiling, drop-kicked a computer off the building (killing a major customer), rigged a paper shredder to kill the department's resident "sadistic nut", ripped out a man's heart through his throat and sold it on the Internet (and later said he "kinda" gave her permission to do so by messing up one of her projects and then saying "it's better to seek forgiveness than to ask for permission"), accidentally crushed a man walking by her cubicle by throwing her computer over the wall, punched her fist clear through a co-worker's head when he wanted to ask a question at the end of an unusually long meeting, and once sling-shot a man with his suspenders so hard he traveled forward in time
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
. Adams once said that he tries to have her kill about one person a year. According to Catbert
Catbert
Catbert is a fictional cat, and 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.-Publication history:...
, she has not been fired for this because she "Did not discriminate, sexually harass
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
, steal
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
or take drugs" (he then gave her an award for her "cost-saving idea"). Perhaps the best example of Alice's destructive nature is her brief encounter with Dilbert's creation, the Antimatter Dilbert
Antimatter
In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles...
. When the Antimatter Dilbert explained to her that only a thin coating of "matterscreen"
Sunscreen
Sunblock is a lotion, spray, gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn...
kept him from being annihilated by matter
Matter
Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...
, Alice's immediate reaction was to test this, throwing her hot coffee onto him, whereupon the Antimatter Dilbert was indeed annihilated. Alice has mentioned that she is a Navy Seal.
On the television series, there are many instances of Alice injuring Wally, such as pounding his head down into his chest cavity, using him to clean up a coffee spill, stuffing him bodily into a copier, and punching a hole through a conference table so she could yank him face first onto it by grabbing his tie.
Alice has also thrown the Pointy-Haired Boss
Pointy-Haired Boss
The pointy-haired boss is Dilbert's boss in the Dilbert comic strip. He is notable for his micromanagement, gross incompetence and unawareness of his surroundings, yet somehow retains power in the workplace...
a fairly long distance as a result of her annual performance review. After threatening to yank him out of his cheap suit and hurl his naked body down the hall, Dilbert and Wally noted that her distance improves every year. She occasionally claims to have superpower
Superpower (ability)
Superpower is a popular culture term for a fictional superhuman ability. When a character possesses multiple such abilities, the terms super powers or simply powers are used...
s. She has also caused the head of the Inappropriate Comment Pig-Boy to explode by using curse words learned from her former boyfriend, the one-eyed carpenter. When the company moved to a high-crime neighborhood to save costs, she took it upon herself to mug
Mugging
Mugging or mugger may refer to:* A type of street robbery**Steaming , a variation of this type of robbery*Model Mugging, a self-defense training technique.* The Mugger Crocodile, a species native to India, Pakistan, Iran, and Nepal....
the company's executives to make them re-consider their decision.
In a comic that ran in December 2003 she was diagnosed with Carpal Punchel syndrome
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is an entrapment idiopathic median neuropathy, causing paresthesia, pain, and other symptoms in the distribution of the median nerve due to its compression at the wrist in the carpal tunnel. The pathophysiology is not completely understood but can be considered compression...
and was forced to stop using her "Fist of Death" for two weeks (replacing it with the only-slightly menacing "Foot of Death".)
Occassionally, other coworkers would use her anger to their or the company's advantage. Once, Wally got her to bend a metal bar into a u-shape by telling Alice it was an award for Dilbert for "being male". In one 2008 strip series involving the company building killer robots, Dogbert
Dogbert
Dogbert is Dilbert's anthropomorphic pet talking dog from the Dilbert comic strip. According to creator Scott Adams, the character is being based on, if not a member of, the beagle breed.-Characterization:...
used his rumor-spreading technique to tell Alice the robots said her hair was unfashionable and she was overpaid, and thus she punched all the robots to death with her "fist of death".