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'Dilbert' Cartoonist Just Tried To Mock Trans People In Latest Comic—And It Backfired Spectacularly

John Sundholm
May. 13, 2022
'Dilbert' Cartoonist Just Tried To Mock Trans People In Latest Comic—And It Backfired Spectacularly
Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip "Dilbert," made a name for himself in the 1980s and 90s by perfectly tapping into the malaise of the American office worker.

But in recent years he's decided to jettison that legacy and spend his time being a far-right troll. And like most far-right trolls, Adams seems to really have a problem with trans people.

So naturally, his most recent "Dilbert" comic hinged entirely on a transphobic joke--and one that definitely did not land.

The comic introduces Dilbert's first-ever Black co-worker--a man named Dave--who tells his new colleagues "I identify as white."

Get it? Hilarious.

And as a special bonus, the comic is also racist--Dave is a so-called "diversity hire" who was brought on board by Dave's boss because "management asked me to add some diversity to the engineering team."

Adams announced the new comic on Twitter by saying that Dave would be appearing every day this week, so long as the comic doesn't get him "cancelled."

Adams did not get cancelled, as he demonstrably still has a job as a comic strip artist and has for more than 30 years, despite having a long-standing history of offensive tweets and statements.

But several national newspapers unsurprisingly declined to run the comic on account of the whole transphobia and racism thing.

Naturally, Adams posted a follow-up tweet in which he tried to turn this into some kind of victimizing grievance, tried to herald "the first Black character...[in] the Dilbertverse" as an act of progress, and denied his joke had anything to with trans people without offering an alternate explanation for what the joke was supposed to actually be about.

Quite the trifecta.

But the real capper to this whole incident was the way it became a true face-plant.

Due to the standard operating procedure at most newspapers that weekday comics don't print in full color, Adams' high-larious transphobic comic printed with the character of Dave looking like a white man, ruining the joke utterly nonsensical.

Roll it all together, and Twitter had a field day roasting Adams to a crisp.