Dilbert (character)
Encyclopedia
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 (and utter social ineptitude), an idea that was explored in the animated television episode
titled "The Knack". He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
with a degree in Electrical Engineering
. Although his ideas are typically sensible and occasionally even revolutionary, they are seldom carried out because of his powerlessness. He is easily frustrated by the incompetence and/or malevolance of his co-workers (most often the Pointy-Haired Boss
) and is often sarcastic and snide. Dilbert's unusual name was suggested to Scott Adams
by a co-worker; Adams later found that the name likely came from a cartoon character used by the United States Navy
during World War II
.
In an interview with The New York Times
Adams said that he based Dilbert's character on someone he knew, saying: "I worked around engineers for most of my 16 years of corporate life. Dilbert is actually designed after one person in particular. Interestingly, that person is not aware that he is the model for Dilbert. I didn’t know him well and never mentioned it to him."
and Ratbert
, and the three dinosaurs Bob, Rex, and Dawn, in an unnamed American
suburb
(though in the TV series, during Dilbert's pregnancy saga, aliens on the highway following Dilbert along with a host of others crash into a sign that says "Townbert", and in episode 3, Lena's car has a licence plate with Minnesota on it), although only Dogbert is regularly seen (as well as Ratbert to a lesser degree). Dilbert often interacts with his co-workers, most commonly including Alice
, Wally
and Asok
(and in the TV series, Loud Howard). He is currently single and has few friends as a result of his poor social skills, although he has been on many dates and was in a relationship with a woman named Liz for two years between 1994 and 1996, and appears to be on decent-enough terms with most of the aforementioned co-workers. While he is frequently seen having dates with eligible women, the dates almost invariably end in disaster, usually in surreal and bizarre ways. Dilbert has only two notable friends, Dogbert
and Wally
, though Wally once told him "don't flatter
yourself" when Dilbert referred to him as a friend and Dogbert has alluded to staying around Dilbert out of amusement concerning Dilbert's suffering (and because the coffee
is good). Dogbert will play jokes and even be cruel to Dilbert, but like all faithful dogs, he will not tolerate anyone else doing this to him. Dilbert treats the Pointy-Haired Boss
like the plague and has very little loyalty towards him or the company for obvious reasons. Dilbert can often predict exactly how and when the boss will doom the current assignment. Dilbert loves computers and technology, and will spend much of his free time playing with such things. Most of his relationships with his co-workers and family are affected by his extreme sincerity, his endless but justifiable complaining, and his humorless dry wit. Although he is an excellent worker, and does not stop trying, he acknowledges that this will get him nowhere.
appears once in a while in the comic and the animated series. While apparently a great Scrabble
player, she has been accused of cheating
in many strips (and in the animated series
) with "counterfeit
vowel
s". In the series, she dances on the table top when she wins a game. She often misinterprets what Dilbert's job is, sometimes thinking he works at a railroad or that he is in the typewriter repair business and often degrading his achievements. She occasionally reveals herself to have surprisingly detailed knowledge about computer technology, further belittling Dilbert. Several fans have dubbed her "Dilmom". but she is only referenced as this in the TV series episode "Hunger".
Dilbert's father never appears in the strip, as he has spent his life since Christmas
1992 (1979 in the TV series) at a 24-hour "All-You-Can-Eat" restaurant in the mall (he will not leave until it is all he can eat.) He can be seen in the episode "The Gift" in the animated series, although his face is never shown, he appears to be overweight, with a gray fishing hat and a sweatshirt, also gray. In that same episode, the restaurant is revealed to be a seafood diner named "The Red Oyster" (a play on Red Lobster
).
In the animated series, Dilbert became pregnant via a disastrous science experiment and gave birth to a hillbilly
-robot
-alien
-bovine-billionaire
-engineer hybrid baby. The baby seems to immediately have clothes that resemble Dilbert's (including his tie). He was then rocketed to Krypton, where Jor-El
and Lara await the baby's arrival, thanks to mail by Dogbert.
or eye
s. In more recent strips the mouth has been drawn on occasions when Dilbert is eating, furious, nervous, or in agony. In the television series (where he is voiced by Daniel Stern
), his mouth is drawn only when he is speaking. Dogbert looks very much like Dilbert, with glasses and no mouth; his mouth likewise appears when he is speaking in the animated series.
In nearly every strip, Dilbert's tie
is curved upward. While Scott Adams
, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, has offered no definitive explanation for this, he has explained the tie at least as a further example of Dilbert's lack of power over his environment. A second explanation given by Adams in the Dilbert FAQ is that "he is just glad to see you". Adams has also hinted that the tie may be displaying an aversion to him. Additionally, in Seven Years of Highly Defective People, Adams wrote: "Many readers asked me to allow Dilbert to lose his innocence
with Liz, so to speak. But I didn't see any way I could do that in a comic strip and get it past the editors. So I developed a secret sign. I told the people who receive the Dilbert newsletter that if Dilbert ever got lucky
with Liz, I would draw his normally upturned necktie flat one day."
The flat-necktie strip was printed on August 9, 1994, in which Dogbert suspected that Dilbert had gotten lucky; ironically, the tie was shown flattened after Liz stated she did not believe in fornication
(Dogbert wondered if Dilbert, who was acting oddly serene, had discovered religion
; Dilbert said he "thought he was Unitarian
"). In another strip, Dilbert met Antina, an overly masculine female coworker who caused his tie to flatten and point downward, strengthening the idea of the tie being a phallic symbol (Adams himself has said that he does not know what it means). On January 11, 2011, Dilbert was diagnosed with pon farr
which caused an irresistible urge to mate. His tie was straight for the next two strips. Sometimes when Dilbert is surprised, scared, or has been beaten up, his tie goes straight. A series once went on about his tie, during which Dogbert attempts to find out. He tries having Ratbert eat one of the ties, theorizes that it has an aversion to him, and eventually gave up after a discussion with the garbageman.
player.
Dilbert also momentarily dies twice in the TV series episode "The Shroud of Wally".
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and the main character and protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of the Dilbert
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
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
. He is a white collar
White-collar worker
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...
office worker who has a rare medical condition characterized by an extreme intuition about all things mechanical and electrical (and utter social ineptitude), an idea that was explored in the animated television episode
Dilbert (TV series)
Dilbert is an animated television series spin-off of the comic strip of the same name, produced by Adelaide Productions, Idbox, and United Media and distributed by Columbia TriStar Television...
titled "The Knack". He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
with a degree in Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
. Although his ideas are typically sensible and occasionally even revolutionary, they are seldom carried out because of his powerlessness. He is easily frustrated by the incompetence and/or malevolance of his co-workers (most often 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...
) and is often sarcastic and snide. Dilbert's unusual name was suggested to 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....
by a co-worker; Adams later found that the name likely came from a cartoon character used by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
In an interview with The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Adams said that he based Dilbert's character on someone he knew, saying: "I worked around engineers for most of my 16 years of corporate life. Dilbert is actually designed after one person in particular. Interestingly, that person is not aware that he is the model for Dilbert. I didn’t know him well and never mentioned it to him."
Relationship with other characters
Dilbert lives with his pets, DogbertDogbert
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:...
and Ratbert
Ratbert
Ratbert is a regular character from the Dilbert comic strip. He was not originally intended to be a regular, instead being part of a series of strips featuring a lab scientist's cruel experiments...
, and the three dinosaurs Bob, Rex, and Dawn, in an unnamed American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
(though in the TV series, during Dilbert's pregnancy saga, aliens on the highway following Dilbert along with a host of others crash into a sign that says "Townbert", and in episode 3, Lena's car has a licence plate with Minnesota on it), although only Dogbert is regularly seen (as well as Ratbert to a lesser degree). Dilbert often interacts with his co-workers, most commonly including Alice
Alice (Dilbert character)
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...
, 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...
and Asok
Asok (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....
(and in the TV series, Loud Howard). He is currently single and has few friends as a result of his poor social skills, although he has been on many dates and was in a relationship with a woman named Liz for two years between 1994 and 1996, and appears to be on decent-enough terms with most of the aforementioned co-workers. While he is frequently seen having dates with eligible women, the dates almost invariably end in disaster, usually in surreal and bizarre ways. Dilbert has only two notable friends, 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:...
and 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...
, though Wally once told him "don't flatter
Flattery
Flattery is the act of giving excessive compliments, generally for the purpose of ingratiating oneself with the subject....
yourself" when Dilbert referred to him as a friend and Dogbert has alluded to staying around Dilbert out of amusement concerning Dilbert's suffering (and because the coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
is good). Dogbert will play jokes and even be cruel to Dilbert, but like all faithful dogs, he will not tolerate anyone else doing this to him. Dilbert treats 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...
like the plague and has very little loyalty towards him or the company for obvious reasons. Dilbert can often predict exactly how and when the boss will doom the current assignment. Dilbert loves computers and technology, and will spend much of his free time playing with such things. Most of his relationships with his co-workers and family are affected by his extreme sincerity, his endless but justifiable complaining, and his humorless dry wit. Although he is an excellent worker, and does not stop trying, he acknowledges that this will get him nowhere.
Family
Dilbert's motherDilmom
Dilmom is a fictional character and Dilbert's mother in Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip and television series. She is homely and intelligent, not unlike her son. She used to think Dilbert worked at a railroad, confusing his profession as an electrical engineer with a train engineer...
appears once in a while in the comic and the animated series. While apparently a great Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
player, she has been accused of cheating
Cheating
Cheating refers to the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. The rules infringed may be explicit, or they may be from an unwritten code of conduct based on morality, ethics or custom, making the identification of cheating a subjective process. Cheating can refer...
in many strips (and in the animated series
Dilbert (TV series)
Dilbert is an animated television series spin-off of the comic strip of the same name, produced by Adelaide Productions, Idbox, and United Media and distributed by Columbia TriStar Television...
) with "counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s". In the series, she dances on the table top when she wins a game. She often misinterprets what Dilbert's job is, sometimes thinking he works at a railroad or that he is in the typewriter repair business and often degrading his achievements. She occasionally reveals herself to have surprisingly detailed knowledge about computer technology, further belittling Dilbert. Several fans have dubbed her "Dilmom". but she is only referenced as this in the TV series episode "Hunger".
Dilbert's father never appears in the strip, as he has spent his life since Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
1992 (1979 in the TV series) at a 24-hour "All-You-Can-Eat" restaurant in the mall (he will not leave until it is all he can eat.) He can be seen in the episode "The Gift" in the animated series, although his face is never shown, he appears to be overweight, with a gray fishing hat and a sweatshirt, also gray. In that same episode, the restaurant is revealed to be a seafood diner named "The Red Oyster" (a play on Red Lobster
Red Lobster
Red Lobster is a U.S. chain of seafood restaurants. It also operates in Canada, the UAE and Japan . It is aimed at the mid-level "casual dining" segment of the market...
).
In the animated series, Dilbert became pregnant via a disastrous science experiment and gave birth to a hillbilly
Hillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
-robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
-alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
-bovine-billionaire
Billionaire
A billionaire, in countries that use the short scale number naming system, is a person who has a net worth of at least one billion units of a given currency, usually the United States dollar, Euro, or Pound sterling. Forbes magazine updates a complete list of U.S. dollar billionaires around the...
-engineer hybrid baby. The baby seems to immediately have clothes that resemble Dilbert's (including his tie). He was then rocketed to Krypton, where Jor-El
Jor-El
Jor-El is a fictional character, an extraterrestrial in the . He was created by the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, and he first appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1939 as Superman's biological father....
and Lara await the baby's arrival, thanks to mail by Dogbert.
Physical appearance
Dilbert usually has no visible mouthMouth
The mouth is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food andsaliva. The oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium lining the inside of the mouth....
or eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
s. In more recent strips the mouth has been drawn on occasions when Dilbert is eating, furious, nervous, or in agony. In the television series (where he is voiced by Daniel Stern
Daniel Stern (actor)
Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...
), his mouth is drawn only when he is speaking. Dogbert looks very much like Dilbert, with glasses and no mouth; his mouth likewise appears when he is speaking in the animated series.
In nearly every strip, Dilbert's tie
Necktie
A necktie is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat. Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat. Neck...
is curved upward. While 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....
, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip, has offered no definitive explanation for this, he has explained the tie at least as a further example of Dilbert's lack of power over his environment. A second explanation given by Adams in the Dilbert FAQ is that "he is just glad to see you". Adams has also hinted that the tie may be displaying an aversion to him. Additionally, in Seven Years of Highly Defective People, Adams wrote: "Many readers asked me to allow Dilbert to lose his innocence
Virginity
Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...
with Liz, so to speak. But I didn't see any way I could do that in a comic strip and get it past the editors. So I developed a secret sign. I told the people who receive the Dilbert newsletter that if Dilbert ever got lucky
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with Liz, I would draw his normally upturned necktie flat one day."
The flat-necktie strip was printed on August 9, 1994, in which Dogbert suspected that Dilbert had gotten lucky; ironically, the tie was shown flattened after Liz stated she did not believe in fornication
Fornication
Fornication typically refers to consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. For many people, the term carries a moral or religious association, but the significance of sexual acts to which the term is applied varies between religions, societies and cultures. The...
(Dogbert wondered if Dilbert, who was acting oddly serene, had discovered religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
; Dilbert said he "thought he was Unitarian
Unitarian Universalism
Unitarian Universalism is a religion characterized by support for a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning". Unitarian Universalists do not share a creed; rather, they are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a...
"). In another strip, Dilbert met Antina, an overly masculine female coworker who caused his tie to flatten and point downward, strengthening the idea of the tie being a phallic symbol (Adams himself has said that he does not know what it means). On January 11, 2011, Dilbert was diagnosed with pon farr
Pon farr
Pon farr is a term used in the fictional Star Trek canonical TV series. In Star Trek, pon farr is a psychophysical condition affecting Vulcans, in which Vulcan males and females go into heat every seven years, going into a blood fever, becoming violent, and finally dying if they do not mate with...
which caused an irresistible urge to mate. His tie was straight for the next two strips. Sometimes when Dilbert is surprised, scared, or has been beaten up, his tie goes straight. A series once went on about his tie, during which Dogbert attempts to find out. He tries having Ratbert eat one of the ties, theorizes that it has an aversion to him, and eventually gave up after a discussion with the garbageman.
Physical condition
Dilbert has a strong immune system and is therefore less likely to get sick than his co-workers. While in most respects weak and unathletic, Dilbert is a skilled badmintonBadminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
player.
Death
In a story arc spanning from September 17, 1990 to October 9, 1990, Dilbert is killed by a wild deer and Mother Nature (although he is seen alive in an unrelated September 23, 1990 strip). Dilbert is cloned back to life by the garbage man on October 5, 1990.Dilbert also momentarily dies twice in the TV series episode "The Shroud of Wally".