Scott Adams was an American cartoonist who created the comic strip Dilbert, which captured the malaise of the modern workplace. It was first published in 1989 and became hugely popular. By the 21st century the comic strip had been syndicated to some 2,000 newspapers, was being read in 70 countries, and had an official website on the Internet. Its lead character, a computer programmer and engineer for a high-tech company with no apparent purpose, was buffeted daily by the illogical projects and business decisions of his clueless boss and the corporation’s equally inept management.
Adams later drew criticism for racist comments made on his podcast Real Coffee With Scott Adams. In 2023 the Dilbert cartoon was dropped by many newspapers after Adams said, among other things, “the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.” He also noted that “If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people,” then they should be called a “hate group.”
Adams died on January 13, 2026, some eight months after announcing that he had metastatic prostate cancer.