It's Not Funny If I Have to Explain It, 24: A Dilbert Treasury

By Scott Adams

Office workers, cubicle squatters, and corporate drones everywhere read Dilbert in their morning papers and see their own bosses and coworkers in the frames of the strip, enacting on newsprint the weird rituals and bizarre activities that are conducted each day in the American workplace. The characters' names and hairstyles have been changed to protect their identities, but Dilbert's readers aren't fooled. After all, they spend every day with these idiots and lunatics.

Jargon-spewing corporate zombies. The sociopath who checks voice mail on his speaker phone. The fascist information systems guy. The sadistic human resources director. The technophobic vice president. The power-mad executive assistant. The pursed-lip sycophant. The big stubborn dumb guy. They're Dilbert's coworkers, and chances are they're yours, too. If you know them, work with them, or dialogue with them about leveraging synergies to maximize shareholder value, then you'll recognize this comic strip as a day at the office, only funnier

Since 1989 Dilbert has lampooned not only the people but also the accepted conventions and practices of the business world. Office politics, management trends, business travel, personnel policies, corporate bureaucracy, irrational strategies, unfathomable accounting practices, unproductive meetings, dysfunctional organizations, oppressive work spaces, silly protocols, and inscrutable jargon are all targets of Adams's darkly goofy satirical pen. Dilbert strikes a deeply resonant chord with fans because it casts such a dead-on reflection of the realities of the white-collar workplace, even with its off-the-wall delivery.

It's Not Funny If I Have to Explain It, features Adams's personal all-time favorite selections, along with his own handwritten commentary about the strips.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0740746588
• ISBN13: 9780740746581
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.5" x 10.9"
• Age Range: 9 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 4 and higher

Customer Reviews

Laugh out loud Funny

This book had me LAUGHING OUT LOUD on the airplane - I am sure everyone was jealous that i was having such a great time with JUST me & my book -- it is VERY funny. Only read this book in public if you won't mind people looking at you because you are laughing so hard!

It is funny, even though he explains it

I bought this book anticipating nothing more than a rehash of "Seven Years of Highly Defective People". Instead, however, Adams starts right where "Seven Years" left off, in terms of the comic timeline. The book is very much like "Seven Years" in that Adams provides funny handwritten comments under almost every comic, but unlike "Seven Years", the book is organized chronologically, and not by character. That said, the book is very funny and very enjoyable to those people (like me) who like a bit of a "behind-the-scenes tour" now and then.

It's fun to hear what he thinks of his own strips

This is the second time Scott Adams has published an annotated guide to some of his better strips; the first was "Seven Years Of Highly Defective People." This time, the book is just a straight-through compilation of his favorites over a seven-year period, with his handwritten notes below each one. He comments on everything from what he thinks was funny in a particular strip to reactions he got from them (some confused people, for instance). I always think it's fun to hear the cartoonist talk about his work. But I'm a comic strip geek.

"I feel like commiting random acts of catness..."

This is the best Dilbert Collection I've ever read. Usually, (While Adams does make a lot of gems) you have to comb through his books to find something that just makes you laugh hysterically. With this book, your search can end, and you can lean back and enjoy Dilbert at it's finest, with little, strange, but somehow normal seeming comments by Scott Adams himself underneath each comic. This is truly a masterpiece, and I suggest it to any funny comic fan (including Dilbert), because it will leave you pasting many of these comics on your cubicle and laughing on end.

"Get Out Of My Cubicle, You Freakish Waste Of Carbon."

I am extremely choosy about compilations of comics, but have to go on record as highly recommending this volume. "Dilbert," while normally enjoyable, has some true standout strips, and this is a collection of Scott Adams' personal favorites with handwritten notes by Adams about each one selected. There is no question that Adams hits the nail on the head regarding personnel in modern American companies, and touches on everything from the ridiculous and grotesque management compensation packages (My favorite of that ilk concludes with underpaid Intern Asok complaining "I make my own underpants from sandwich bags."), management by cliches, pointless corporate reorganization and departmental name changes (I am particularly familiar with this one.), outsourcing (I love the Elbonians.) and Adams' (and my) personal pet peeve, "Management by Analogy" which has management saying something absolutely stultifying to employees while not ever recognizing their own gaffe. I highly endorse this book. If you work for a big company, you will definitely see your organization here in some form or fashion. I just wish the real workplace was as much fun as this book.