Cartoon Central

An amusing weekend distraction. You can see the full-sized strip or even buy it on a t-shirt over at Dilbert.com.

A couple of weeks ago Scott Adams (the writer of Dilbert) wrote something I wish I’d written myself: a very logical and sensible summary of the global warming debate. Clearly I think we have to make thoughtful choices about the impact we have on the environment; that said, I don’t believe the most extreme doomsday scenarios which all the true believers are supposed to support.

Seems like the making of a new Dilbert Cartoon series, to me.

So Scott Adams, the Dilbert guy, made a post on his blog about Copyright Violation. He illustrated it with a delightful Underpants Analogy. (I’ll just post the link here, and you can click on the link to read it at his blog site. I respect Adams’ rights to his writings, and I will not wear his underwear.)

However, a friend recently recommended The Dilbert Blog by Scott Adams, and after reading the article called Oh Deer (about a man charged with making whoopie to a dead deer), I frickin’ LOLTTPOCSIHTGTKAWME (laughed out loud to the point of crying so I had to get two Kleenexes and wipe my eyes).

Scott Adams’ blog makes me laugh at least twice a week and laugh so hard I cry at least once a month. In October Seth Godin said he resists the urge to link to every Scott Adams post because his readers have probably already read it. I have the same problem.

OK this is totally not-safe-for anything, but people are wondering if Prince was playing shadow puppets during the half-time show. Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) has a hilarious take here.

I’m a big fan of the Daily Dilbert plugin for Firefox, and today’s was one I could especially relate to …

# Showing the boss, for the X time, how to turn the laptop upsidedown and shake it to get it to reboot (ala Dilbert and the Etch-A-Sketch cartoon). :-)

It’s not much of stretch to say that “Retail” is hoping to become the “Dilbert” of direct customer contact. Here’s what King Features’ blurb about the strip says:

Remember that scene in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” where he’s talking to Lucy (the psychiatrist) and she finally nails his phobia? He screams, “THAT’S IT!” knowing that she just nailed exactly what he’s feeling? This Dilbert does it for me when it comes to politics.

Scott Adams is a professed atheist, but you may know him as the daily writer for the hilarious Dilbert comic strip. He also writes a daily blog, which I frequently read. One day he listed and ranked several reasons that Christians give for belief in God. Since they are coming from an atheist, this is interesting reading. My comments are bracketing and in bold.

I am presently reading Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel. It contains some Dilbert strips, some commentary, and letters from the trenches to illustrate his points. One of the letters says:

I’ve been reading Adams’ Dilbert Blog for a while now, and it’s usually quite entertaining. I have, however, ignored his jags of late on Intelligent Design, as I don’t find it to be terribly productive to try and get info on that topic from a forum like the Dilbert Blog.

Ok, you won’t be surprised if I put the “Dilbert Mission Statement Generator” on the “do not do this” list. However, you might be surprised that it actually does an ok job at it. I don’t suggest it, but here’s a taste.

There are two strips that I try to catch in the morning's newspaper: Doonesbury and Dilbert. I know I can get them online, but there's something valuable about reading them at the kitchen table.

First Dilbert’s Boss does GTD and now Cathy, role model to insecure thirtysomething women everywhere, extols the virtues of the DIY Planner.

While I don’t condone stealing from work either, Scott Adams (the Dilbert artist) comes up with some great material. This is classic! and what’s even funnier is that I know people who would do this!

The Dilbert cartoon for Feb 3rd 2006 was too painful. It reminded me way too much of a past job for a company that shall remain nameless but I bet many of you will have had a similar experience.

While reading my daily Dilbert cartoon, I came across a link to Scott Adams’ Blog. I was intrigued so I read a few of his entries. One of his posts mentions a free E-Book. I downloaded the book and read it in a couple of hours. I believe this is a fictional story, but I cant be sure. One thing I can be certain is it made me think, “Hmmmm”. I haven’t decided if I have just read an amazing document which could shift the paradigm of human thought completely, or a collection of theories which take advantage of the general populations ability to understand only 75% of any concept.

I don't care who you are, this is just funny. If you have a chance be sure to check out The Dilbert Blog on a regular basis. Scott Adams isn't afraid to talk about controversial stuff and while there are always way too many comments to read, some of them are funny and insightful.

The Weblog Awards competition is heating up in the “Best Humor Comics” catagory and the General needs your vote. I know some of you are probably French and will not choose to participate but you should know one thing… While the General had enjoyed a comfortable lead in the polls, the Dilbert Blog (yes, the cartoon guy in the paper) has been gaining and this is unacceptable. While cartoons with funny dogs, pointy haired men and sour cats can be amusing, they are not the “The Official Online Organ of the Glorious Christian Cultural Revolution”. For the Dilbert Blog to win this competition would add strenght to the subversive influences of the liberal media and further damage our society for decades to come.

The paranoia inspired by this domino theory of job migration causes American and West European programmers to worry about India, Indian programmers to worry about China, Chinese programmers to worry about the Czech Republic, and so on. Domino theorists must think all IT jobs will go to the Republic of Elbonia, the extremely poor, fourth-world, Eastern European country featured in the Dilbert comic strip.

On Sunday, Scott Adams wrote this post about quitting caffeine, and mighty funny it was too; in fact it may be one of Adams’ most amusing posts of late. Today however it disappeared, with SA’s explanation for it’s removal consisting of “I deleted it. Don’t ask why.”

So, I've been reading the Dilbert blog off and on. One of the things I noticed is that Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, is really just another guy. He's nobody 'special' in the sense that he's overly creative or smart or whatever. He has a specific skill (writes funny comic strip) that he has exploited. The output from this skill is now highly in demand he is therefore able to make money applying said skill. I often ask myself, "Why can't I be like Scott Adams" or anyone else successful for that matter?

If you think that is cool check out their unofficial section where you can PDFize the last week of Dilbert comics and more. Pretty cool!

Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams had an odd request for the readers of his blog today: He asked them to give him a line of text for one of his upcoming cartoons. Now collaborative online writing has been around for quite some time, but I think this is the first time a popular cartoonist offered his readership to work on his dialogues. Actually Scott chose one of the comments just an hour later. Had I noticed this early enough I would have contributed for sure. Being co author of a Dilbert cartoon would have been a high honor, just second to being featured in User Friendly.

Dilbert is my hero. Dilbert has joined the blogosphere with us at The Dilbert Blog. How fantastic. I've added Dilbert to My Blog Roll in the bottom right panel, so you can read along with me. Someone told me that blogging was the next big thing since the internet...

BlogCritics blogger Anna Creech reports that her local paper found a recent Dilbert comic a bit too graphic.

One item I largely can't get on-line are comic strips. There are exceptions - Dilbert broke through, in part, due to being one of the first internet-distributed comics - but this has never bothered me since 95% of the comics out there just aren't interesting. Reading them is largely a waste of time.

The brilliant title is not mine, it’s John Murrell of Good Morning Silicon Valley, and this post is really a plug for one of my favorite blogs. It’s more informative than CNet, funnier than Dilbert, and is best served with a cup of espresso.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I use the Wally Reflector on a fairly regular basis - As does nearly everyone I know. It’s usually quite justified.

So I was wandering around her blog today and happened across something also unique and marvelous - a collection of online comics! She has them listed under the heading Funny Papers (what else?), way down through several screens of interesting stuff on the lefthand sidebar. It’s worth clicking over there and scrolling past the Archives, Categories, Blogs, Homeschooling Links, Places I’d Like to Go and the Reading List, because then you can click on a long list of comics websites such as Alley Oop, Andy Capp, Baby Blues, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, For Better or For Worse, Katzenjammer Kids, Li’l Abner, Mother Goose and Grimm, Pearls Before Swine, Prince Valiant, Rose Is Rose, Tumbleweeds and many others.

I don’t know how many of you read Dilbert Comics but if you work in a corporate environment where there is an endless line of management and blue tape B.S. on top of you. The comedic genius becomes ever so much more realized and funny. The writers have a way to hit upon the things that happen daily in our office and make light of them. If not more than twice a week there is some Dilbert comic brought around that you would swear someone in the office had to write it because it is so on. Oh well I might try and find a way to post Dilbert comic of the month on this site, that might be cool.

A magazine recently ran a "Dilbert quotes" contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real-life dilbert-type managers.

You know its kinda sad when 3 people from my department have now quit so I am arguably the senior tech in my department and my boss tells me this, followed by this isn’t changing your job title or pay but I will have more to do. At this point I thoought I was part of a really bad Dilbert cartoon. Anywho it is just funny that I am now a senior tech and then new people will look to me for guidance.

This is so incredibly dumbass I barely know what to say. Office environments seem to turn out ready-made Dilbert strips with such consistency that I wonder why Scott Adams still has a job.

I don’t blog about work. I feel that if I really start to use this venue to rant about work, I’ll never stop, and while Dilbert is funny to read, hearing about one tormented soul’s existence over and over gets to be oppressive.

You've heard of the comic strip character 'Dilbert'? Now meet Umbert, the unborn. Complete with an 'interactive kid's page', now you too, can get a jumpstart in brainwashing your child into becoming an insensitive, judgemental, self-righteous nutcase with Umbert.

How happy is your office? Many corporations invest thousands of dollars in surveys to take a pulse on organization's cultural health. According to consultant Rick Brenner of Chaco Canyon Consulting,you don't have to wait for a survey, just have to walk around your office and look for Dilbert.

Hugh McLeod author of the Gaping Void blog is a great cartoonist. His Dilbert style cartoons are much funnier than any rat bert or dog bert one liner. The cartoon in "Blog As is Your Life Depended on it" is hilarious. You open up his page and you are always greeted with a great laugh guaranteed. The guy gives better delivery than a Starbucks. Gaping Void, its my frappuccino. Comfortable atmosphere where you always know what you are getting when you go there. If you really like the stuff you can get blog cards and limited edition t-shirts....

10. You cannot really appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the original Klingon.

Since January, Adams has been sketching and drawing “Dilbert” using an interactive display developed largely for graphic artists. Produced by Wacom Technology, based in Vancouver, Wash., the Cintiq 21UX LCD tablet allows artists to use a stylus on a pressure-sensitive computerized tablet. For Adams, this means he doesn’t have to push down hard to draw. In addition, the software requires him to draw on an enlarged scale. Together, these effects keep his brain from prompting his hand to freeze up, he said.

Unrelated, this is a funny photoshopping of an old Dilbert that is more than believable. So much so that the head of the dept forwarded it to the students. It’s funny ‘cause it’s true.

Why not say it, that marketing as we know it is plain wrong (including advertising of course). And while he's at it (he works in a classic organisation does he not?) why not add that organisational hierarchies and current management theories are off too. Way off.

It certainly could explain the lack of real-and-major results from the gazillions spent in management schools, think tanks, advertising firms, on management handbooks, different Sigmas and what not over the last hundred years. Any dramatic changes to how we operate? Any wee little results? Check Dilbert for answers.

I am sure some of you can really appreciate todays Dilbert cartoon.

Thank god I left Verizon after getting reamed for $1,300. If I hadn’t come to my senses sooner, I sure as hell would’ve dumped them after reading this classic case of The Dilbert Principle.

Scott Adams' "Dilbert" was a breath of subversive air when Corporate America was still a place where you could hang out for years, earn some good money, and if you were skilled politically, easily get promotions. Now, as the Council on Competitiveness documents in spades, American business is in trouble http://www.compete.org/nii/.

Yet, "Dilbert" continues to focus on those absurd corporate interactions and procedures that we knowingly smiled about when we were collecting our regular checks. You know, the boss who asks for candid input ...

Whoa! RSS feed of my comic strip has been added to the list of RSS feeds of all comic strips - so my comic strip is now in good company: including Dilbert and Peanuts!

All of this serves to remind me of two things: one, the reason that "Dilbert" and "The Office" are so painfully funny is that you just can't make this shit up; and two, my interest/passion level about what I do is stunningly low.

Or is man more than (to borrow a phrase from Dilbert) “an organic pain receptor racing toward oblivion?” If we are more than this, what is it? And if we are, why will global warming matter?

If Dilbert is your hero.

If you have "Dilbert" comics displayed anywhere in your work area.

And now, how about a daily dose of Dilbert--I'm not sure what to say about it, other than public antipathy toward the pharma industry now has migrated all the way to the funny pages. (Thanks, Irwin, for the pointer!)

Dilbert creator, Scott Adams, is suffering from a brain mapping problem called focal dystonia. It’s a very strange situation where activities that are performed too frequently, force the brain to adjust what you can and can not do.

See if you notice the difference between these two cartoons. The first one was created in 2001, the second just recently.

Inside 4 sentences and literally 30 seconds, the HR manager had degraded the consultants and contractors as “temps”. I found it ironic that the manager did not find it necessary to introduce any of the developers that the new associate would be working with... but she felt compelled to introduce an admin assistant who happened to be one of the only full-timers in sight.

OK, not “project management”, but Dilbert-esque all the same.

I have a subscription to Dilbert through Comics.com. It's free and I get each day's Dilbert emailed to me. If you want to spend a little money you can get up to 70 different comics emailed for something like $12 a year.

Anyway, part of the deal is you also get added to Dogbert's New Ruling Class and a subscription to the DNRC monthly Newsletter. It's an absolute riot most months. Be careful about reading at work unless you want to have to explain why you just spit your coffe all over your monitor. Through your nose.

A friend e-mailed me a link to a funny set of Dilbert quotes.

Just one example.

Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will. You walk around the building all day, shiftlessly looking for fault in others. You have a sharp dressed useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle.