How to Understand Dilbert

How has Dilbert become one the biggest comic strips in the world today? What caused a Pacific Bell engineer named Scott Adams to become one of the most successful cartoonists of his time? It's not that hard to see how the Dilbert comic strip appeals to countless everyman workers everywhere. Read on to understand Dilbert.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Getting to Know the Strip

1. Read the strip regularly. Dilbert appears in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide.
2. Read the books. There are more than twenty different collections of previous strips in print. Check the humor section in the bookstore.
3. Watch the animated TV show--if you can find it. The show was canceled after 2 years but was quickly released on DVD. You may need to find a specialty video store to locate a copy.
4. Get a general feeling for the strip's theme. Dilbert's main story is satirizing the American workplace. It centers around Dilbert and his co-workers dealing with stupid bosses and annoying employees.

Characters

5. Understand that Dilbert is the main character. He's an engineer at a big company that almost no one listens to. He represents the everyman, the honest, hard worker that becomes lost in a dog-eat-dog society.
6. Know that Dogbert, Dilbert's pet, is an obnoxious megalomaniac. His dream is to conquer the world and make humans slaves for dogs.
7. Understand that Wally is Dilbert's lazy co-worker. He hasn't done real work in years, having accepted that the company doesn't care about him so he won't care about the company.
8. Know that Alice is Dilbert's workaholic co-worker. She'll sacrifice everything for success, only to be told it was all unnecessary. She will then take out her frustration physically on her male co-workers.
9. Understand that the Pointy-Haired Boss is meant to represent everyone's boss that they can't stand. This is why he has no other name. He's a clueless corporate drone who fails to see the plight of his subordinates.
10. Get to know the smaller characters as well. Catbert is the evil Human Resources director, Asok is the naive intern, Carol is the boss' mean secretary and Ratbert is a clueless, annoying rat that lives with Dilbert.

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