History YMMV / Dilbert

** In [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230228093017/https://dilbert.com/strip/1990-02-14 1990]], a communist dog asks Dogbert whether "your god is this Donald Trump?". In 2015, [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/god-emperor-trump it became a meme]].

* HarsherInHindsight: The strip's syndication was pulled due to the public backlash from controversial political statements made by its creator... two years after he had a short arc in the comic about Dilbert's company's stock tanking because the CEO kept making controversial political statements.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers.

** The term "PointyHairedBoss," aside from being a TropeNamer, is almost ubiquitous (as is the derivative "pointy-haired" as a synonym for "stupid").

** The post cancellation strips have been generally unfunny and excessively focused on the very things that got it cancelled

* CantUnHearIt: Those who watched the ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'' cartoon probably have trouble reading [[ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} the actual comic]] without hearing Creator/DanielStern as Dilbert, Creator/ChrisElliott as Dogbert, Creator/LarryMiller as The Pointy-Haired Boss, Gordon Hunt as Wally, Creator/KathyGriffin as Alice, Creator/TomKenny as Asok and Ratbert, etc.

** It's subtle, but the way that the credits "flicker" with the sound of the inmate being electrocuted.

** The alien merger shown draining human heads

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'' is a BlackComedy WorkCom about Dilbert, an engineer working for a soulless and bureaucratic corporation, underneath an incredibly thick-witted, PointyHairedBoss; kids probably wouldn't understand this, anyway. Despite this, it aired on '''FOX Kids''' on Argentina.

** The PHB accuses Dilbert of this after the latter saves his life via CPR. In addition to assuming Dilbert tried to DateRape him.

* ArchivePanic: The whole archive is online - 30 years of daily strips - That's around 11,000 comic strips. You can find them at 49 strips per page [[http://www.dilbert.com/strips/1989-04-16/?F=1&CharIDs=&ViewType=Full&After=04%2F17%2F1989&Before=07%2F20%2F2009&Order=s.DateStrip&PerPage=49&x=38&y=13&CharFilter=Any here]], with hundreds of pages in total.

** Techno-Bill, who only appeared in [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-12-30 two]] [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-12-31 strips]] from 1992. Also serves as a walking TechnologyMarchesOn.

* GeniusBonus: The fable that the Pointy-Haired Boss relates in [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-11-24/ this strip]] is traditionally used to explain the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development) Scrum]] software development methodology. If you're not familiar with Scrum, the strip is still very funny, but if you are, it's clear that the PHB thinks himself clever for using an analogy that he read somewhere else and probably doesn't understand.

** In [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-02-23/ this strip]] the PHB asks for a phone that's larger than an average smartphone but smaller then a average tablet. Dilbert acts like it's a stupid idea. That same year the concept of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phablet phablet]] started hitting its stride.
** While Apple's 2015 watch may not be able to transmit voices and images, it can still be used for email, contacts, web browsing, etc. In other words, [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1989-06-10/ Dogbert's idea for a "Dick Tracy watch"]] seems a bit obsolete.
** [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-02-24 A 1992 strip]] has Dogbert saying he'd rather run as a ''Communist'' than as a Democrat because he wants to have a chance. This was on the tail end of a generation in which Republican presidents held office for 20 out of 24 years, with those 4 outlier years mainly being due to the Watergate scandal.[[note]]Richard Nixon: 1969-1974. Gerald Ford: 1974-1976. Jimmy Carter: 1977-1980. Ronald Reagan: 1981-1988. George H.W. Bush: 1989-1992.[[/note]] [[UsefulNotes/BillClinton The Democratic Presidential candidate]] won that year.

** The comic was losing momentum even before its cancellation strip. The humor got meaner while Dilbert lost his OnlySaneMan status and became more of a drone in line with Wally so that the PHB could go from being a clueless buffoon to a beleaguered leader who has to harangue is workforce into being productive.

** The comic was losing momentum even before its cancellation strip. The humor got meaner while Dilbert lost his OnlySaneMan status in favor of the PHB, who went from being a clueless buffoon to a cruel taskmaster in the right.

** SeasonalRot: The comic was losing momentum even before its cancelation strip, but the post cancelation strips have been generally unfunny and excessively focused on the very things that got it cancelled

* SeasonalRot: The comic was losing momentum even before its cancelation strip, but the post cancelation strips have been generally unfunny and excessively focused on the very things that got it cancelled

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers. It finally collapsed completely in March 2023, when Scott Adams made a series of ''wildly'' racist remarks that got the comic dropped by its syndicate, leaving Adams known for his alt-right viewpoints and little else online.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers.

** [[https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/27/dilbert-demise-scott-adams-00084665 Of course the comic having its syndication dropped by publisher Andrews McMeel Universal in 2023; following controversial race remarks from Adams as well]].

* HarsherInHindsight: In May of 2021, there was a short arc about Dilbert's CEO making uninformed statements about political matters, resulting in offended investors dumping the company stock, with the moral that visible figures should think before making public statements or remain silent. Fast forward to February of 2023, and Scott Adams' [[OvershadowedByControversy personal politics]] [[https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/25/business/dilbert-comic-strip-racist-tirade/index.html have gotten Dilbert dropped from hundreds of newspapers.]]

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers. This reached [[https://www.npr.org/2023/02/26/1159580425/newspapers-have-dropped-the-dilbert-comic-strip-after-a-racist-rant-by-its-creat breaking point in February of 2023]] when Adams posted a video calling Black Americans a "hate group" and encouraged other white people to "get as far away from them as possible", leading to the cartoon being dropped by hundreds of newspapers and very likely destroying Adams' career permanently.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers. After Adams went on a racist rant during a livestream in February 2023, his own syndicate (Andrews [=McMeel=] Universal) severed ties with him entirely, causing ''Dilbert'' to be dropped from newspapers nationwide (as well as most online carriers such as [=GoComics=].) It's still available on dilbert.com, though.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers.

** In February 2023, he posted a video in which he described Black people as a "hate group" and encouraged White people to stay away from them. He immediately drew widespread criticism for these remarks, and hundreds of newspapers dropped ''Dilbert'' by the end of the month -- followed by its distributor cutting all ties with Adams.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers. In late February 2023, Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., and other publishers pulled ''Dilbert'' from their newspapers after Adams posted a video rant in which he declared black people to be a "hate group" and advocated racial segregation.

** [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1989-06-14 This 1989 strip]] involves Dilbert and Dogbert getting into a [[HurricaneOfPuns "pun war"]] using [[EquineAndEquestrianTropes horse phrases]]. Twenty-one years later, [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic a certain animated show]] would premiere that featured more horse puns than this strip could dream of.
** In 1994, there were a few strips featuring Sven, an international terrorist who got hired anyway because "he went to Yale." (As he quickly explains to Dilbert, [[AccentDepundent "I yust got out."]]) [[https://dilbert.com/strip/1994-12-26 Take a look at Sven.]] Now take a look at [[https://www.npr.org/2022/11/29/1139454126/oath-keepers-stewart-rhodes-seditious-conspiracy-verdict-trial Stewart Rhodes]], the far-right extremist and ''actual Yale alumnus'' involved with the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers. Widespread cancellation of ''Dilbert'' from newspapers ensued when Adams posted a video rant in which he declared black people to be a "hate group" and advocated racial segregation.

* OvershadowedByControversy: Scott Adams' support of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and sympathies with men's rights activists, promotions of [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] hoax-cures, and other dalliances with far-rightism, made the strip unpopular among those who don't share his views; while readers might normally be willing to overlook a cartoonist's personal politics, the fact that said politics resulted in some very public disputes and scandals made them difficult to ignore. This worsened when Adams' new app was accused of exploiting victims of a mass shooting in Gilroy, California, resulting in petitions for ''Dilbert'' to be removed from newspapers.