Dilbert's demise no surprise to followers of both the comic and creator Scott Adams
Share
NEW YORK -
The comic strip Dilbert disappeared with lightning speed following racist remarks by creator Scott Adams, but it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who has followed them both.
Adams, who is white, was an outspoken presence on social media long before describing Black people as a “hate group” on YouTube and, to some, Dilbert had strayed from its roots as a chronicler of office culture.
The editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, which dumped Dilbert last year, said the comic strip “went from being hilarious to being hurtful and mean.” The Los Angeles Times, which joined dozens of other newspapers in dropping the comic following last week's remarks, had quietly replaced four of Adams' strips last year.
“He kind of ran out of office jokes and started integrating all this other stuff so after a while, it became hard to distinguish between Scott Adams and Dilbert,” said Mike Peterson, columnist for the industry blog The Daily Cartoonist.
As individual newspapers told readers they were dropping Dilbert, the company that distributed the strip, Andrews McMeel Universal, said it was severing ties with Adams. By Monday, Dilbert was gone from the GoComics site, which also features many top comics such as Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes.
Adams said Monday that the strip, which first appeared in 1989, will only be available on his subscription service on the Locals platform.
Dilbert is effectively dead, Peterson said.
Adams said Monday on YouTube that his distributor didn't really have a choice because clients and other cartoonists were mad. “They were just forced into it,” he said.
On Twitter, he said his book publisher and book agent had “cancelled” him. The Penguin Random House imprint Portfolio said it wouldn't publish Adams' book “Reframe Your Brain” in September, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Adams has long been active on Twitter, whose CEO, Elon Musk, was among the few to publicly back him. He also blogs regularly and puts out a regular podcast on YouTube.
He's attracted attention for comments he's made in the past, including saying in 2011 that women are treated differently by society for the same reason as children and the mentally disabled — “it's just easier this way for everyone.” He said 2016 GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina had an “angry wife face.”
Adams became a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump, saying Trump had a hypnotist's skill in attracting followers. He said that stance cost him money in lost speaker's fees.
He said he lost the prime-time animated Dilbert series that ran on UPN for two seasons for “being white” when the network decided to target a Black audience, and that he lost two other corporate jobs because of his race.
During the Feb. 22 episode of his YouTube podcast “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” he referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.” Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26 per cent of Black respondents disagreed and others weren’t sure.
The Anti-Defamation League said the phrase at the centre of the question was popularized as a trolling campaign by members of 4chan — a notorious anonymous message board — and was adopted by some white supremacists. Rasmussen Reports is a conservative polling firm that has used its Twitter account to endorse false and misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines, elections and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Adams repeatedly referred to people who are Black as members of a “hate group” or a “racist hate group” and said he would no longer “help Black Americans.” On his podcast Monday, he called his “hate group” remark “hyperbole,” but continued to defend his advice that white people “get the hell away” from Blacks.
In announcing that Dilbert would be cut from the Kansas City Star, the newspaper's community engagement editor, Derek Donovan, said Adams' “antagonistic, childishly macho persona” has been a constant for years.
“It's not cancel culture,” editor Richard Green of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in California said. “It's doing the right thing.”
The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, Massachusetts, left a blank space Monday where Dilbert would normally run and said it would keep it that way through March “as a reminder of the racism that pervades our society.”
The San Francisco Chronicle stopped publishing Dilbert last October — a move that drew only a handful of complaints. Editor-in-Chief Emilio Garcia-Ruiz said in the newspaper that he had objected to a strip that said in an effort to diversify workplaces, straight men should pretend to be gay.
In a Sept. 2 Dilbert strip, a boss said that traditional performance reviews would be replaced by a “wokeness” score. When an employee complained that could be subjective, the boss said, “That'll cost you two points off your wokeness score, bigot.”
In an August strip, the boss said the company was getting into the “pandemic prevention market” and creating demand by unleashing a deadly virus.
A Black employee featured in an Oct. 20 strip noted that his boss ignored his actual accomplishments to recommend him for a job for which he was not qualified. The employee backed down when told it would be a big jump in pay.
Peterson said there are other examples of how Adams' attitudes had replaced the biting humour that Peterson and a legion of middle managers loved. Adams seemed to run out of jokes.
“The strip jumped the shark,” he said.
___
Associated Press writer David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, and news research Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
New research out of London, Ont.’s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease’s progression.
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.
An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Ottawa was negligent in its enforcement of the city's taxi bylaw when it allowed Uber to begin operating in 2014, harming the city's established taxi industry.
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.
One of two men wanted for attempted murder in Timmins has been arrested, while a warrant has been issued for a second suspect, who fled police on foot.
An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Ottawa was negligent in its enforcement of the city's taxi bylaw when it allowed Uber to begin operating in 2014, harming the city's established taxi industry.
A billboard has collapsed and killed three people and injured 59 in India's financial capital, Mumbai, in thunderstorms and heavy rain, the Press Trust of India reported Monday.
Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced the longest serving member of his Cabinet in a rare Kremlin shuffle that took place at a key moment in the Ukraine war.
Aid workers struggled Monday to distribute dwindling food and other supplies to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by what Israel says is a limited military operation in Rafah, as the two main crossings near the southern Gaza city remained closed.
A truck driver accused of intentionally killing a police officer during a traffic stop on a Utah highway had been holding a woman against her will inside the cab of his truck, new court documents reveal.
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
A parliamentary committee is outlining ways the federal government can better prepare for the impact of artificial intelligence on the Canadian labour force.
As his criminal trial got underway Monday, 'Freedom Convoy' organizer Pat King pleaded not guilty to a list of nine charges related to the major protest that paralyzed downtown Ottawa in 2022.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister is embarking on a five-day trip to the Middle East and the Mediterranean where she will focus on peacekeeping and aid.
New research out of London, Ont.’s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease’s progression.
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
The United Conservative Party says it has gathered a panel of medical experts for a town hall meeting next month that's expected to discuss the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in children.
'Judge Judy' Sheindlin sued the parent company of the National Enquirer and InTouch Weekly on Monday for a story that she said falsely claimed that she was trying to help the Menendez brothers get a retrial after they were convicted of murdering their parents.
The fictitious Crawley family and their servants running a sprawling English country estate in the early 20th century are returning for a third 'Downton Abbey' movie, which will feature old and new faces.
Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the non-profit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organizations over the past 20 years.
Kraft Heinz is exploring a sale of its Oscar Mayer meats business that could fetch up to to US$5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Ottawa was negligent in its enforcement of the city's taxi bylaw when it allowed Uber to begin operating in 2014, harming the city's established taxi industry.
Irresponsibly using a credit card can land you in financial trouble, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew says when used properly, it can be a powerful wealth-building tool that can help grow your credit profile and create new opportunities.
When it comes to gardening, a lot of questions come up, including the best way to keep pets away from plants, maintaining your lawn and keeping the dandelions at bay.
When I was knee-deep in the early years of parenting, dishes piled up, laundry was rarely folded, and Whole Foods did a fair amount of the cooking for me.
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
New York City FC coach Nick Cushing has repeated his denial of allegations that he punched a Toronto FC player, saying he is shocked and upset at the claim.
Amazon's self-driving robotaxi unit is being investigated by the U.S. government's highway safety agency after two of its vehicles braked suddenly and were rear-ended by motorcyclists.
The Biden administration plans to impose major new tariffs on electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar equipment and medical supplies imported from China, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the plan.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
Thousands of hectares of land in northeastern B.C. are burning from holdover fires, with officials saying persistent drought conditions through the winter and a challenging wildfire season last year have "amplified" challenges for crews.
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.
Subway service is expected to remain suspended through the afternoon rush on a portion of Line 2 due to a hydraulic oil leak that was first detected on Monday morning.
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
The United Conservative Party says it has gathered a panel of medical experts for a town hall meeting next month that's expected to discuss the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in children.
Calgary police have laid more than a dozen charges against a man alleged to be responsible for several break-and-enters at businesses throughout the city.
An Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Ottawa was negligent in its enforcement of the city's taxi bylaw when it allowed Uber to begin operating in 2014, harming the city's established taxi industry.
Lawyers for Montreal's McGill University are in court this morning seeking an injunction to dismantle the pro-Palestinian encampment that has been on its downtown campus since last month.
A man was injured when he was attacked while walking his dog earlier this month. The 55-year-old man was reportedly attacked by a man and woman with what appeared to be a knife and a machete.
The Crown will decide if they will ask to consolidate the charges among the four accused in the death of 16-year-old Ahmad Al Marrach in Halifax sometime this week.
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Marc Mueller has plenty of football experience as a player and a coach – but he's taking on a new role in the Canadian Football League (CFL) this year as an offensive coordinator.
One of two men wanted for attempted murder in Timmins has been arrested, while a warrant has been issued for a second suspect, who fled police on foot.
A 29-year-old Timmins man is charged with impaired driving in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 144 near Greater Sudbury that sent two children to hospital by air ambulance Saturday.
Parts of Grey-Bruce and Huron-Perth find themselves under a severe thunderstorm watch Monday afternoon, with the possibility of strong wind gusts, large hail, heavy rain, and an isolated tornado threat.
New research out of London, Ont.’s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease’s progression.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and various federal ministers were in St. Thomas Monday to announce more than $200 million for child care spaces in Ontario. The stop at the YMCA Station View Child Care Centre comes as the national child care program continues to face unexpected challenges.
Provincial police are warning the public about water safety following an incident where two adults and two children ended up in the chilly Muskoka River near Holditch Street in Bracebridge.
Chatham-Kent Police Service is recommending 35 additional closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems in several downtown areas at Chatham-Kent council Monday evening.
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.
A Vancouver Canucks defenceman has been suspended for a game and another was handed a hefty fine after a scrum broke out at the end of Game 3 against the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night.
After four targeted shootings in four days, Mounties in Kamloops are taking the unusual step of warning the public about two men they believe are likely to be targeted in future violent incidents.
A 22-year-old man from the Greater Toronto Area is facing drug trafficking charges after police in northwestern Ontario seized $700,000 in drugs during raid.
Ontario Provincial Police are facing tough questions about their search for a missing Newfoundland trucker whose rig was found two weeks ago in Ontario, then sent back to Newfoundland, where his body was found Monday in the trailer.