CSotD: Love is never having to say you’re an idiot
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It struck me, as I was deciding what strip to feature today, that it was odd that the first time "Dilbert" has appeared here, it was in a non-office setting.
However, I find that, while Dilbert's attacks on bureaucracy were ground-breaking when they first appeared, that was more than 20 years ago and, since then, general humor about general office politics have lost some punch, just as the jokes about weight gain that were so fresh when "Cathy" debuted in 1976 have not only become stale but, more to the point, have been refined by strips that have sprung up since with a sharper focus.
That is, Cathy Guisewhite was one of the first female cartoonists who didn't simply ape the topics covered by male cartoonists, and her female character didn't simply dent fenders and overdraw checking accounts. It was a breakthrough, but the women who came after, who were syndicated in part because Cathy showed the appeal of female-themed humor, created more sharply focused strips in which more detailed characters explored more specific female issues, and who explored other issues in female-focused ways.
Similarly, when Dilbert began, jokes about the office were mostly variations on Mr. Dithers chasing Dagwood around screaming at him. Dilbert began making more incisive observations about business, and then strips sprang up with more focused personalities and where not only were the personalities more clearly drawn but the mission of the company where those characters worked was often more precise, so that the jokes about bad decisions, poor management and lousy performance were more nuanced and more a part of a three-dimensional story. And, just as the female perspective began to be inserted into jokes that weren't about the female perspective, those job concerns began to emerge as part of a more complex setting, rather than as the setting itself.
Which brings us to this strip about Dilbert feeling that the conversations you have on a first date are a debate in which it is necessary to win points by persuading your opponent to concede them. I'm not saying it's breakthrough, because there are cartoons — "Pardon My Planet" comes to mind — in which the mindgames of relationships are dissected.
I guess what I'm saying is that Scott Adams still has the power to crack me up. It just doesn't happen with cartoons about people sitting around a conference table very often any more.
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