List of minor characters in Dilbert
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This is a list of minor characters from the Dilbert comic strip.
Contents |
[edit] Dilbert's family
[edit] Bob, Dawn, and Rex
Introduced in 1989, Bob and Dawn came into the strip after Dilbert figured out that not all dinosaurs could be extinct.[1] Bob often gives wedgies to people. Rex was born shortly after the introduction of Bob and Dawn. Bob is close friends with Ratbert.
Bob makes a cameo appearance in the teaser of one of the TV episodes, and can also be seen amongst several other prehistoric creatures in the opening title sequence.
[edit] Dilbert's Dad
Also known as Dadbert. An unseen character in the comic strip, although he does appear in the animated series, in which his appearance is like that of Mammy Two Shoes from Tom and Jerry or Wilson from Home Improvement. He left Dilbert's mother during a trip to the mall in 1992 (1979 in the TV series), and lives at the all-you-can-eat restaurant in the mall because he has not eaten all he can eat.
[edit] Dilbert's Mom
Also known as Dilmom, she is homely and intelligent. She used to think Dilbert worked at a railroad because he is an engineer. She's often selfish and openly uncaring towards her son; in the TV series she states that, although she loved him, she did not actually like him. She has nearly the same level of technical knowledge as Dilbert, although she has him do technical work for her. She is obsessed with Scrabble, and has been accused of cheating with "counterfeit vowels". (This is a reference to Scott Adams' own mother.) She also is on an unnamed department store's "bad customer list", because she returned over a thousand items to the store, one scarf in particular 17 times.
[edit] Other
[edit] Liz
Dilbert's girlfriend from 1994 to 1996. He met her at a soccer game, where she rebounded a ball off his head to score a goal. Liz would constantly taunt Dilbert about their comparative levels of attractiveness and his obsession with technology, though Dilbert always took such comments in stride. Adams admitted in Seven Years of Highly Defective People that "Liz never really clicked with me", and eventually had her break up with Dilbert, after she started dating other men. She is Dilbert's longest relationship; in a series of rather ambiguous strips, it is suggested that Dilbert almost lost his virginity with her (Seven Years of Highly Defective People). Scott Adams clarified in a user interview that Dilbert is still a virgin and will remain so for a while.
[edit] The World's Smartest Garbageman
Dilbert's garbageman is a mysterious philosopher and scientist. He occasionally solves extremely complex problems for Dilbert and has several inventions, including a weather control device, a phaser, and an anti-stupidity gun. He also goes through Dilbert's trash on occasion,[2] and once completed a robot that Dilbert had thrown out. In the TV show, it is revealed that he is the only garbageman for the whole city, and is able to collect for all houses through teleportation.
[edit] Co-workers
[edit] Accounting trolls
Sadistic trolls from the accounting department whose bodies are 95% saliva. As Dogbert shows, their brains are so hard-wired that seeing someone wearing a baseball cap backwards causes their heads to explode, which he referred to as a "paradigm shifting without a clutch." The trolls' accounting offices resemble a cavernous Hell. They were originally ruled by a witch who turned Dilbert into an accounting troll but was destroyed when Dilbert, assigned to budget erasing, erased the accounting department's budget.
The trolls are rarely given names, however occasionally a troll by the name Nordlaw is referenced. In the television series one of the trolls was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried.
[edit] Loud Howard
Another coworker who became a regular character in the TV series, despite appearing in just a few comic strips (on 21 April 1995 [1] and 17 March 2006 [2], and again by popular request on 11 October 2006 [3]).
Loud Howard is incapable of speaking quietly, and in the TV series his overpowering voice often breaks anything and everything around him, including people's eardrums. It has also shattered glass and slammed people against the wall. When he sneezes, it is highly advisable to take cover, as the resulting blast has blown the flesh off people, leaving only a skeleton (at least among the folks in Marketing). In "The Merger", he mentions that they should "create a product that keeps your fillings from vibrating when you talk", as his fillings fly out of his mouth, which he then starts to pick up and presumbaly re-insert them into his mouth.
In the strips, his loud voice is represented by huge lettering and his comically huge mouth (when talking), which takes up most of the available panel space and is therefore difficult to sustain as a running joke. Howard as a recurring character is better-suited to the animated series, where his voice actor, Jim Wise, can speak as loudly as necessary.
A strip on 14 April 2008 [4] sees Alice, Asok, and Dilbert complaining to PHB about Loud Howard insisting on using his speakerphone in his cubicle. The PHB made swift response by moving Loud Howard to a newly available private office, much to the three employees' dismay.
During the TV episode "Ethics", Loud Howard holds a party, and it is shown that his house borders an airport, a railroad track, and a freeway - possibly explaining his need to shout everything.
[edit] Ted the Generic Guy
Ted is the name that creator Scott Adams attributes to a number of one-shot characters, because they all look the same due to his limited artistic skills. He has gone by other aliases in the strip. When Adams needs to kill a co-worker, he often kills Ted.
[edit] Tina
Tina was introduced as a technical writer in order to add more females to the cast. She feels that her skills are unappreciated. Initially, she was called "brittle" and would believe every statement was intended to be sexist in some way. Readers criticized Adams for what they believed to be a stereotypical and negative portrayal of women. In response, Adams created the character Antina (the antidote to Tina), who was very smart and did not look like a typical woman. Readers criticized him again for Antina, believing that he was making fun of lesbians.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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