List of Dilbert characters
This is a list of characters that have appeared in Scott Adams' Dilbert comic strip.
Primary characters
Dilbert
The main character in the strip, Dilbert is a stereotypical technically-minded single male. Prior to October 2014, he was usually wearing a white dress shirt, black trousers and a red-and-black striped tie that inexplicably curves upward; since then, he has worn a red polo shirt with a name badge on a lanyard around his neck. Dilbert received his master's degree in electrical engineering from MIT; he understands engineering well and has good ideas, but has a poor social life. Neither attractive nor blessed with tremendous social graces, Dilbert is capable, but ignored at work and struggles with his romantic life. While he is frequently seen having dates with eligible women, his dates almost invariably end in disaster, usually in surreal and bizarre ways. Dilbert loves computers and technology and will spend much of his free time playing with such things. He had a girlfriend named Liz for a little over two years, but she started dating other men, stating that she would still date Dilbert, but date other men at the same time.Pointy-haired Boss
The oblivious manager of Dilbert and the other engineers, and sometimes the main antagonist of the strip; his real name is never mentioned. Scott Adams states that he never named him so that people can imagine him to be their boss. First mentioned on April 20, 1989, he was depicted as a stereotypical late-middle-aged balding middle manager with jowls; it was not until October 21, 1991 that he developed his signature "pointy hair" and the jowls disappeared. He is hopelessly incompetent at management, and often tries to compensate for his lack of skills with countless group therapy sessions and business strategies that fail to bear fruit. He does not understand technical issues but always tries to disguise this, usually by using buzzwords he also does not understand. The Boss treats his employees alternately with enthusiasm or neglect; he often uses them to his own ends regardless of the consequences to them. Adams himself wrote that "He's not sadistic, just uncaring". His level of intelligence varies from near-vegetative to perceptive and clever, depending on the strip's comic needs. His utter lack of consistent business ethics, however, is perfectly consistent. His brother is a demon named "Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Light", and according to Adams, the pointy hair is intended to remind one of devil's horns.Wally
One of the oldest engineers, Wally was originally a worker trying to get fired to obtain a large severance package. He hates work and avoids it whenever he can. He often carries a cup of coffee, calmly sipping from it even in the midst of chaos or office-shaking revelations. Wally is extremely cynical. He is even more socially inept than Dilbert, and references to his lack of personal hygiene are not uncommon. Like the Pointy-Haired Boss, Wally is utterly lacking in ethics and will take advantage of any situation to maximize his personal gain while doing the least possible amount of honest work. Squat and balding, Wally is almost invariably portrayed wearing a short sleeved dress shirt and tie. Adams has stated that Wally was based on a Pacific Bell coworker of his who was interested in a generous employee buy-out program—for the company's worst employees. This had the effect of causing this man—whom Adams describes as "one of the more brilliant people I've met"—to work hard at being incompetent, rude, and generally poor at his job to qualify for the buy-out program. Adams has said that this inspired the basic laziness and amorality of Wally's character. Despite these personality traits, Wally is accepted as part of Dilbert, Ted, Alice, and Asok's clique. Although his relationship with Alice is often antagonistic and Dilbert occasionally denies being his friend, their actions show at least a certain acceptance of him. He has openly admitted that all his good ideas are about coffee, that sometimes include sabotaging rival companies coffee so they only have decaf.Alice
One of the more competent engineers. She is often frustrated at her work because she does not get proper recognition. She believes it is because she is female, though in reality it is likely because she has a quick, often violent temper, sometimes putting her lethal "Fist of Death" to use, even with the Pointy-Haired Boss.Dogbert
Dilbert's anthropomorphic pet dog is the smartest dog on Earth. Dogbert is a megalomaniacal intellectual, planning to one day conquer the world. He once succeeded, but became bored with the ensuing peace, and quit. Often seen in high-ranking consultant or technical support jobs, he constantly abuses his power and fools the management of Dilbert's company, though considering the intelligence of the company's management in general and Dilbert's boss in particular, this is not very hard to do. He also enjoys pulling scams on unsuspecting, and usually dull customers to steal their money. However, despite Dogbert's cynical exterior, he has been known to pull his master out of some tight jams. Dogbert's nature as a pet was more emphasized during the earlier years of the strip; as the strip progressed, references to his acting like a dog became less common, although he still wags his tail when he perpetrates his scams. When an older Dilbert arrives while time-traveling from the future, he refers to Dogbert as "majesty", indicating that Dogbert will one day indeed rule the world...again, and make worshipping him retroactive so he could boss around time travelers.Asok
A young intern, he works very hard but does not always get proper recognition. Asok is intensely intelligent but naive about corporate life; the shattering of his optimistic illusions becomes frequent comic fodder. He is Indian, and has graduated from the Indian Institutes of Technology. The other workers, especially the boss, often unwittingly trample on his cultural beliefs. On the occasions when Asok mentions this, he is normally ignored. His test scores and his IQ of 240 show that he is the smartest member of the engineering team. Nonetheless he is often called upon by the Boss to do odd jobs, and in meetings his ideas are usually left hanging. He is also seen regularly at the lunch table with Wally and Dilbert, experiencing jarring realizations of the nature of corporate life. There are a few jokes about his psychic powers, which he learned at the IIT. Yet despite his intelligence, ethics and mystical powers, Asok sometimes takes advice from Wally in the arts of laziness, and from Dilbert in surviving the office. As of February 7, 2014, Asok is officially gay, which never impacts any storylines but merely commemorates a decision by the Indian Supreme Court to uphold an anti-gay law.Ted
An engineer who is often seen hanging out with Wally. He is referenced by name more often in older comics, but he is still seen occasionally now. He is a friend of Dilbert and Wally, but is not seen interacting with Alice or Asok as much. He has been accepted into Dilbert's clique. He has been fired and killed numerous times, so it is likely that he is rehired and brought back to life in a similar way to the other main characters who die and come back. In addition to this, he is often promoted and given benefits over the other employees. Ted has a wife and kids who are referenced multiple times and seen on at least one occasion. Scott Adams refers to him as Ted the Generic Guy because whenever Scott needs to fire or kill someone, he uses Ted, but slowly over time Ted has become his own character. Ted appears in an episode of the series "Y2K", and is mentioned in "the Little People".Secondary characters
Loud Howard
Another coworker who became a regular character in the TV series, despite appearing in just a few comic strips on and , and again by popular request on . 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, caused his fillings to vibrate so hard they fall out of his teeth, slammed people against the wall and rendered his sneezes powerful enough to strip a person's flesh from their bones. He lives by an airport, which likely accounts for his loud voice.Loud Howard made a reappearance on , where he meets Topper and they both have a shouting match right outside Dilbert's cubicle.
Carol
The bitter secretary of the Pointy-Haired Boss, who hates her boss and all of her co-workers. Initially a minor character in the strip, her character grew enough in popularity over the years that Adams started creating complete storylines for her. Her character was based on all the bad experiences Adams ever had with any secretary. Several strips feature Carol menacing or attacking co-workers with a crossbow. Carol frequently attempts to put the Pointy-haired boss in situations where he will be killed; she states this to the boss directly on numerous occasions. She has, for example: encouraged him to buy a build-it-yourself helicopter kit; scheduled his business trips via third world countries experiencing rebel insurrections; caused him to crash his car by sending him texts marked 'crisis' so that he will answer them while driving; scheduled 'walking meetings' so that his lack of physical coordination may cause self-injury, for example by falling off a bridge, and holding a press conference stating that her boss is an infamous serial killer. Carol's two young, poorly behaved children also make appearances in the strip. She is voiced by Tress MacNeille in the animated TV series.Ratbert
A rat formerly used as a laboratory test animal. A cheerful character and something of a nitwit though he does make the occasional brilliant observation. He usually gets all the lowest jobs but has been seen as a consultant before. He has made the pointy-haired boss fall under his consultant spell. Dilbert originally disliked Ratbert for being a rat, but Ratbert is later accepted as a member of the family. He was not originally intended as a regular character, but because of his popularity with readers he was kept.Ratbert first appeared on. He was not originally intended to be a regular, instead being part of a series of strips featuring a lab scientist's cruel experiments. Ratbert soon realized that he was the subject of a hideous macaroni and cheese experiment and escaped, eventually finding a refuge in Dilbert's house. He was not initially accepted by the residents, especially Dilbert, who was highly prejudiced against rats. However, he finally allowed Ratbert to become a permanent member of the household.
Ratbert chose his name through a discussion with Dogbert. Dogbert suggested names such as 'Rodney the Rodent' and 'Vernon the Vermin'. XP-39C² suggested the name 'Bill the Rat' before finally settling on 'Ratbert'.
As a simple rat, and having been specially bred to be susceptible to peer pressure, Ratbert is very gullible and innocent, although optimistic. Sometimes his actions can become quite annoying, such as doing "rat dances". Like Dogbert, he has made inroads into business, once working as an intern, a concierge, a consultant and vice-president of marketing. He also became CEO after a series of strips that involved the previous CEO jumping into a volcano and the first replacement burning up due to daylight. Ratbert was fired for varnishing employees for use as office furniture. He received a severance package of $100 million, the corporate jet, perpetual benefits and a salary of $1 million per year.
Ratbert's biggest ambition in life is to become loved and accepted. He tries to impress those he considers his friends on various occasions, and nearly always fails miserably. Just as Dogbert protects Dilbert on numerous occasions despite his contempt for him, so do Ratbert's friends and family. Ratbert is friendly with Bob the Dinosaur, and is also good friends with [|Mister Garbage Man], who tries—and fails—to enlighten Ratbert on the complexities of the universe.