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The “Dilbert” comic strip, named after the title character, which often made fun of office culture with its satirical humor and social commentary, has been canceled in nearly 80 markets, its author told Fox News. .
Lee Enterprises stopped printing the comic this week, said Scott Adams, who has written and illustrated the popular comic since 1989. This media company, he owns nearly 100 newspapers across the United States.
“I believe it was part of a major overhaul of the comics, but I don’t think anyone but them knows why they decided what went in and what came out.
Fox News reached out to Lee Enterprises.
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Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip “DILBERT,” said the comic was removed from 77 markets this week.
(Getty Images)
Adams said other comics were permanently canceled as well, but that decisions were made on a case-by-case basis as to which ones were removed.
According to Adams’ website, “Dilbert” has been published in thousands of newspapers in 57 counties and in 19 languages. This comic strip of his has been one of his most popular over the years, and more than 20 million of his “Dilbert”-themed books and calendars have been printed.
In recent years, Adams has teased themes related to the workplace, most recently environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, and the introduction of a new character named “Dave” who identifies as black but identifies as white.
Dave, named after Adams’ brother, is a prankster who likes to mess with his boss, and is happy to have met his diversity quota, Adams said of the comic.
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“All the arousal and everything that ESG permeated … so they permeated the business world and became the right content for Dilbert,” Adams said. “The problem is, even if it’s a work-related joke, people see it. It’s how they carry it out.”
He said some newspapers had expressed concern after receiving complaints about its content, but he wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with the removal of “Dilbert.”
Tuesday’s strip sees the supervisor explaining to Dave how to raise the company’s ESG rating.
“Dave, I am promoting you to CTO because we need to increase our ESG ratings. No, but would it be very difficult to identify it as our CTO? Gay?” his boss asks.
“It depends on how much you want me to see it,” Dave replies.
“Put on a better shirt,” the supervisor replies.
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“What I do is talk about how employees deal with situations. It’s enough to make people think no,” he said.
Overall, Adams said the cancellation took a financial toll on him.
“That’s a good deal,” he said.