Scott Adams

I liked Dilbert but the late Scott Adams was not entirely a good guy

AI Overview

Scott Adams, who passed away in January 2026, left a complex legacy where his massive success as the creator of the iconic office-culture strip 

Dilbert was completely overshadowed in his final years by his personal views and controversial commentary. 

While Dilbert was celebrated for years for its sharp, satirical take on corporate bureaucracy—featuring the Pointy-Haired Boss and the disillusioned worker—the strip's tone began to change as Adams's public persona grew more polarizing. 

Key Aspects of the 2023 Controversy and Downfall

• The 2023 Racist Rant: In February 2023, Adams appeared on his Real Coffee with Scott Adams YouTube channel and reacted to a poll about race relations by declaring that Black Americans were a "hate group" and advising white people to "get the hell away from Black people".
• Widespread Cancellation: Following these comments, hundreds of newspapers, including The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, immediately dropped the comic strip.
• Severed Ties: His distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication, severed all ties with him, and his book publisher scrapped a planned, non-Dilbert book.
• Defense of Comments: Adams defended his remarks as "hyperbole" and "out-of-context" reporting, though he refused to apologize for the sentiment, arguing he was advocating for self-segregation. 

The Final Years

• Rebranding: After being dropped from mainstream media, he rebranded the comic as Dilbert Reborn on the subscription site Locals, where he continued to post and lean into right-wing political commentary.
• Health Struggles: In 2025, Adams announced he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer, noting that it had spread to his bones.
• Death: He died on January 13, 2026, at the age of 68. 

As you noted, many fans and critics struggled to reconcile the witty humor of the Dilbert comic strip with the increasingly extreme and offensive views expressed by its creator, with his later years often cited as a cautionary tale of how public commentary can destroy an artistic legacy