Scott Adams, whose caricature “Dilbert” satirized a sure type of office tradition for greater than 30 years earlier than its creator was canceled due to his feedback on race, died Tuesday morning after a battle with metastatic prostate most cancers. He was 68.
The announcement got here through Adams’ YouTube channel, the place he livestreamed each day till Monday morning.
“Hello everybody. Sadly this isn’t excellent news. After all he waited till simply earlier than the present began, however he’s not with us anymore,” his ex-wife, Shelly Adams, stated by way of tears Tuesday morning.
The cartoonist, whose extraordinarily dry humor and heterodox political opinions have been on public show lately on his each day livestream “Espresso With Scott Adams,” spoke on to his viewers nearly as much as his dying, getting some assist from mates in his closing days. .
Adams revealed his Stage 4 most cancers analysis in Could 2025, shortly after former President Biden’s metastatic prostate most cancers analysis went public.
“A few of you could have already guessed, so this received’t shock you in any respect, however I’ve the identical most cancers Joe Biden has,” he stated on his Could 19, 2025, livestream. “I even have prostate most cancers that has additionally unfold to my bones, however I’ve had it longer than he’s had it. Properly, longer than he’s admitted having it.”
He famous that he and the previous commander in chief each had “the dangerous form” of prostate most cancers.
“There’s one thing you’ll want to learn about prostate most cancers,” he stated. “If it’s localized and it hasn’t left your prostate, it’s 100% curable. But when it leaves your prostate and spreads to different elements of your physique … it’s 100% not curable.”
As Could, Adams had been utilizing a walker and coping with horrible ache as a result of, he stated, the most cancers had unfold to his bones. Saying that the illness was “already insupportable,” he added, “I can let you know that I don’t have good days.” He stated throughout a December present that he was “paralyzed” from the waist down within the sense that despite the fact that he had sensation, he couldn’t transfer any of these muscle mass.
Given all that, he stated, “my life expectancy is perhaps this summer season. I anticipate to be testing from this area someday this summer season.” However Adams outlived that prediction, livestreaming from his hospital mattress throughout a keep for radiation remedy earlier than Christmas and selecting up once more from his mattress at house after that. Every present began off with the “simultaneous sip,” the place Adams invited anybody watching to hitch him in a communal sip from the beverage of their selecting earlier than he launched into reviewing the information of the day.
Born Scott Raymond Adams on June 8, 1957, in Windham, N.Y., to a postal clerk father and an actual property agent mom, he began drawing cartoons when he was 6. Adams was valedictorian at Windham-Ashland-Jewett Central Faculty, obtained his bachelor’s in economics from Hartwick Faculty in Oneonta, N.Y., after which moved to California, the place he earned a grasp’s in enterprise administration at UC Berkeley.
He proceeded to work for years at Crocker Nationwide Financial institution and Pacific Bell, holding the forms of generic company workplace jobs his caricature would use as fodder. Whereas he was at PacBell, he woke up each day earlier than daybreak to strive to determine an alternate profession. Cartooning received out.
“Dilbert,” which launched in 1989, went from working in a handful of papers to, at its peak, showing in additional than 2,000 retailers in 57 nations and 19 languages. Adams obtained the Nationwide Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award, the trade’s highest honor, in 1997. Web page-a-day “Dilbert” calendars have been high sellers for years, with greater than 20 million calendars and “Dilbert” books in print.
The comedian took satirical goal at a micromanaged white-collar office and ultimately grew into an empire that included a brief TV collection (largely written by Adams), dozens of books and ubiquitous merchandise.
Dilbert, the strip’s surrogate for Adams, interacted with characters together with the Pointy-Haired Boss, the boss’ secretary Carol, co-worker Wally, who was making an attempt to get fired so he would get severance, the competent however underappreciated Alice, hardworking however naive intern Asok, the clueless CEO, the evil HR chief Catbert and Dogbert, the neatest canine on this planet.
Along with his quite a few comedian compilations, Adams’ books included enterprise writing like “Learn how to Lose Nearly Each Time and Nonetheless Win Huge” and “Win Bigly.”
Adams married girlfriend Shelly Miles, a mom of two, in 2006, and the wedding lasted eight years. The 2 remained mates after their 2014 divorce, with Shelly in the end studying Scott’s closing message to viewers.
In 2018, Adams discovered that his stepson Justin, whom he stated he had “raised from the age of two,” was useless of an overdose at 18 after years of battling habit. Adams fought again tears as he defined in his livestream that Justin’s decision-making skills had suffered after a head damage sustained in a motorbike accident when he was 14.
The cartoonist’s political beliefs have been everywhere in the map — he as soon as referred to as himself “a libertarian, minus the loopy stuff.” In 2016, he declared, “I don’t vote and I’m not a member of a political get together.” Extra not too long ago he veered towards assist for President Trump, whom he thought of an awesome persuader of individuals.
Then in February 2023, remarks Adams made on his podcast have been interpreted as racist, resulting in critical penalties in his profession.
Throughout a midweek livestream, Adams had riffed off the outcomes of a ballot that requested whether or not individuals agreed with the assertion “It’s OK to be white.” Amongst Black respondents, 26% disagreed and 21% stated they weren’t positive — a complete of 47% who didn’t suppose it was OK to be white.
(The seemingly innocuous phrase “It’s OK to be white” had been co-opted in 2017 for a web based trolling marketing campaign aimed toward baiting liberals and the media, the Anti-Defamation League stated in a press release on the time. The phrase additionally has a historical past of use amongst white supremacists.)
“If practically half of all Blacks aren’t OK with white individuals … that’s a hate group. And I don’t need something to do with them,” Adams stated in his ordinary deadpan supply. “And based mostly on how issues are going, one of the best recommendation I might give to white individuals is to get the hell away from Black individuals. Simply get the f— away. Wherever you must go, simply get away. ’Trigger there’s no fixing this. This will’t be mounted.”
He continued, nonetheless deadpan, “So I believe it is unnecessary in any respect, as a white citizen of America, to attempt to assist Black residents anymore. It doesn’t make sense. There’s now not a rational impulse. And so I’m going to again off from being useful to Black America, as a result of it doesn’t appear to be it pays off. Like, I’ve been doing all of it my life and the one final result is I get referred to as a racist.”
Inside days, amid backlash about Adams’ feedback, “Dilbert” was dropped by quite a lot of newspapers, together with the Los Angeles Instances. Then his syndicator, which had supplied “Dilbert” to retailers that printed the comedian, shed him as a shopper completely. And Penguin Random Home slammed the door shut when it nixed publication of his guide “Reframe Your Mind,” which might have come out that fall, and eliminated his again catalog from its choices.
Adams mentioned his personal cancellation after the very fact, saying a couple of days afterward his livestream that he had been utilizing hyperbole, “which means an exaggeration,” to make some extent. He stated the tales that reported his feedback had used a trick: “The trick is simply to make use of my quote and to disregard the context which I helpfully added afterwards.”
However he stated that no person would disagree along with his two details, which had been to “deal with all people as people, no discrimination” and “keep away from something that statistically seems to be like a nasty thought for you personally.” He additionally disavowed racists.
Adams wound up self-publishing “Reframe Your Mind” in August 2023 with a dedication that learn, “For the Simultaneous Sippers (Thanks for saving me.).”
Even after his excommunication from the mainstream, Adams’ weekday morning livestreams often garnered tens of 1000’s of views on YouTube and have been additionally viewable on Rumble, the place the cartoonist had gone to keep away from speech restrictions on YouTube on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The outline on considered one of his video accounts learn, “In the event you get pleasure from studying the right way to be more practical in life whereas catching up with the attention-grabbing information, that is the channel for you.”
