Line #11 Heartwarming/Dilbert


1	* For a moment, Dilbert, Wally, and ''Alice'' are all happy with each other. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20201109031426/http://dilbert.com/strip/2009-12-09 Take a look.]]
2	* The extra-length Sunday strips are usually self-contained gags divorced from the (already admittedly loose) continuity of the regular strips, but there has been at least one exception: the Sunday before Christmas 1992, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20171229012103/http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-12-20 this strip]] was run, then referenced several days later [[https://web.archive.org/web/20171229004439/http://dilbert.com/strip/1992-12-24 here]], on Christmas eve... and again [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230306235143/https://dilbert.com/strip/1992-12-25 here]] on Christmas Day. Say it with me now: [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther n'awwwwwwwwwwwww.]]
3	* A more morbid example: FBI agents try to talk Dilbert's mom into getting him to come out of the Elbonian Embassy so they can execute him for treason. They end up in fresh graves.
4	* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20171229011900/http://dilbert.com/strip/1993-12-25 "Welcome to the family, Ratbert."]]
5	* In a weird way, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230302011608/https://dilbert.com/strip/2011-05-14 "That option has always been on the table"]]
6	* Alice [[https://web.archive.org/web/20230301215948/https://dilbert.com/strip/2004-06-06 defending]] Dilbert against a gossipy co-worker.
7	* In one story arc, a criminal steals Dilbert's identity, depriving him of his home and his job, leaving him with only Dogbert. Dilbert momentarily thinks that even Dogbert has abandoned him, but then Dogbert tracks down the culprit to force him to give back what he stole from Dilbert. As Adams notes in his commentary for "Seven Years of Highly Defective People," Dogbert will always be there for Dilbert.
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9	Animated Series:
10	* At the end of "The Gift", when Dilbert runs out of time to get Dilmom a birthday gift and has to get her [[MyNewGiftIsLame a gift certificate]], it looks like she's just going to treat him like a total joke yet again. However, it's let slip that Dilbert went to the mall (which he is [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes absolutely terrified of]]) to look for said gift, and Dilmom seems genuinely touched.
11	** Then he reveals the other gift he has for her: [[spoiler:security camera footage of his father, whom neither of them had seen for years.]]
12	* The climax of "Pregnancy, Part 2" is surprisingly sweet.
13	* Despite being the single most selfish, morally bankrupt character in the entire ''Dilbert'' mythology, Dogbert is almost always quick to get Dilbert out of a crisis if necessary.
14	* "Holiday" is mostly about Dilbert's frustration with holidays (especially after Dogbert Day starts), but then he talks to Asok. The intern talks about his own parents and how he regrets not thinking of them more often. When Asok says he needs a reminder like Dogbert Day to think of his loved ones, Dilbert decides to spend his day off with Dilmom.
15	* "The Merger" has Dilbert confused over missing his co-workers despite not even liking them that much, and why the risk of losing them in the upcoming merger bothers him. Dogbert explains that the human mind will create ersatz family units, and that Dilbert has accidentally come to see his closest co-workers as family; PHB is a substitute for the father who left him, Loud Howard is like a weird uncle, Wally and Alice are the siblings he never had, and the younger, naive Asook is like a son. Dilbert realizes that no matter how little he likes it, they really are the closest thing he has to a family.
16	** Dilmom has a similar view of things, she and Dilbert are very different people and don't particularly like eachother, but they're still mother and son and love eachother.
17	* "The Knack" reveals that when Dilbert was a preternaturally technologically adept child, a substitute doctor diagnosed him with "[[MrFixit The Knack]]." That doctor was [[spoiler:[[ConnectedAllAlong the World's Smartest Garbage Man]]]], who, at the end of the episode, [[spoiler:helps him regain the Knack after he loses it.]]
18	-->'''Dilbert:''' I don't need any rags. What I need is to find my knack.
19	-->'''Garbage Man:''' Yes. The Knack. It's like trying to find the one good rag in a huge pile of bad ones.
20	-->'''Dilbert:''' How is that the same?
21	-->'''Garbage Man:''' Sometimes the harder you look, the better it hides. When you stop looking for The Knack, it will find you.
22	-->''(A DramaticWind blows a rag down from the top of the Garbage Man's cart.)''
23	-->'''Dilbert:''' You look familiar. ''(A wheel of the cart collapses.)'' You know, if you shorten the axel about eight inches, you'll reduce the stress and you won't have this problem.
24	-->'''Garbage Man:''' ''(smiling)'' Exactly. ''(He hands the rag to Dilbert.)'' Looks like you found your rag.

Context Heartwarming / Dilbert