Fans of the popular comic strip “Dilbert” were dealt a heartbreaking blow on Tuesday.
“Dilbert” comic strip creator Scott Adams announced that the comic strip has been canceled in 77 newspapers, according to his Twitter.
Many white-collar workers identify with the main character, Dilbert, who is frustrated with corporate America. The comic strip blends present-day, government-issued policies and pokes fun at the way it causes challenges in the workplace.
#Dilbert was cancelled in 77 newspapers this week.
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) September 20, 2022
Adams has been writing and illustrating the comic since 1989. He told Fox News that Lee Enterprises stopped printing it this week — so much for freedom of speech.
“It was part of a larger overhaul, I believe, of comics, but why they decided what was in and what was out, that’s not known to anybody except them, I guess,” Adams said.
Lee Enterprises owns close to 100 newspapers across the United States, and “Dilbert” was published in 57 countries and 19 different languages.
Adams indicated that there were other comics that got canceled, and every decision was made on an individual basis.
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“All of the wokeness and anything that permeated from ESG… so that stuff made its way into the business world, and then it became proper content for Dilbert. The problem is that people see that even though it’s a workplace-related joke, but it’s more about how they implement it,” Adams continued.
While Adams was aware of complaints over “Dilbert,” he is unsure as to what caused the cancelation.
Some of the issues that Adams has taken on over the years through his comic include social, environmental and Governance (ESG).
Recently, he introduced a character named “Dave” who is African-American but says he identifies as being white.
Adams said he named the character after his brother. The character likes to play pranks on his boss, who is always striving to make sure the company’s diversity quota is met.
In a recently published cartoon, Dave’s supervisor has become concerned about the company’s ESG rating.
Love Dilbert! If this is true, people really have the time and energy – not only to be offended by a comic – but write complaints.. 😐
‘Dilbert’ author claims comic was removed from 77 newspapers https://t.co/YwCRNxJXae
— E. Taylor (@so_sad_alon3) September 22, 2022
“Dave, I need to boost our company’s ESG rating, so I’m promoting you to be our CTO. I know you identify as white, so that won’t help our ESG scores, but would it be too much trouble to identify as gay?” the boss asked.
“Depends on how hard you want me to see it,” Dave replied.
“Just wear better shirts,” his supervisor requested.
It would seem there was a bit of warning that newspapers were getting agitated over “Dilbert.” Adams announced the comic was being censored on Sept. 14 via his Twitter account.
Just learned some of the bigger newspaper groups (that own multiple papers) are censoring Dilbert this week over the ESG comics. I’ll publish those comics on social media when the series is complete. #Dilbert
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) September 14, 2022
According to Adams’ website, in 1997, “Dilbert” won the Reuben award, which is cartooning’s highest honor.
In addition, over 20 million Dilbert books and calendars are in print — with the comic being the top-selling page-a-day calendar for a number of years.
