Who Was Scott Adams? Cartoonist Who Poked Fun At Office Culture With His Dilbert Comic Strip Passes Away At 68

(MENAFN- Live Mint) 'Dilbert' comic creator Scott Adams passed away on Tuesday, 13 January, following a battle with metastatic prostate cancer. He was 68 years old.

The 'Dilbert' cartoonist's former wife, Shelly Miles, announced Adams' death in a live stream on his YouTube channel, 'Real Coffee with Scott Adams', reading a statement Miles said Adams had prepared before his death.

“I had an amazing life,” the statement said.“I gave it everything I had.”

Who was Scott Adams?

Scott Adams became a hero to millions of cubicle-dwelling office workers in the early 1990s for his comic strip "Dilbert," an award-winning satire that poked fun at office culture.

How 'Dilbert' came into life with Adams' creativity

Scott Adams was still working as an engineer at Pacific Bell in the 1980s when he began sketching cartoons on a whiteboard in his cubicle, quietly nursing a dream of a more creative life, according to a report by the Washington Post.

His doodles soon became an office hit - especially a mouthless, potato-shaped worker with a bulbous nose, thinning hair and a red-and-white striped tie.

That character grew into 'Dilbert', the comic strip that debuted in 1989 and went on to appear in more than 2,000 newspapers worldwide, rivalling the likes of Peanuts and Garfield.

With sharp wit and deadpan humour, Dilbert captured the absurdities of corporate life - from promotions that came“with no extra pay, just more responsibility” to an“employee location device” that turned out to be a dog collar.

Donald Trump's tribute to Adams

Adams had started writing blog posts praising Donald Trump in 2015, and his daily video podcast featured a range of guests.

Once he had asked Trump to 'help save his life' to which Trump had replied,“On it!”

After the news of Adams' death broke, Trump paid a tribute to the cartoonist, who he described as a“fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn't fashionable to do so”.

When Dilbert became 'hurtful and mean'

Dilbert ran for decades and reportedly appeared in around 2,000 newspapers across the globe before Adams' controversial comments about race prompted its widespread cancellation in 2023.

In a February 2023 episode of his YouTube show, Adams described 'Black' people as members of“a hate group” and said white people should“get away” from them. The comments drew swift backlash, with media organisations across the US condemning them as racist, hateful and discriminatory, and announcing they would no longer carry Adams' work.

The then editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, which dumped "Dilbert", said the comic strip“went from being hilarious to being hurtful and mean," mentioned a report by Fox4.

What happened to Adams?

Adams announced his cancer diagnosis at the same time former US President Joe Biden had announced he had an“aggressive” form of prostate cancer.

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