History WesternAnimation / Dilbert

* InventionalWisdom: Lena's version of the Depruner has a ''[[OffWithHisHead decapitate]]'' setting. It does make some sense considering Lena's backstory, but it doesn't turn out so well when ''she'' ends up in it.

* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: Alice thinks so...until the realities of taking care of one drive her to the breaking point.

The theme song was a revision of Danny Elfman's opening theme of ''Film/ForbiddenZone''.

The theme song was written by Danny Elfman, and inexplicably has the same melody as his opening theme for ''Film/ForbiddenZone''. (This was because it was adapted from his theme for said film, without his involvement.)

* BrainDrain: Attempted in the episode with the Nirvana Corporation.

* MindScrew: The show's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6k0ZfE4Gr4 opening sequence]], and several of the episodes, but especially in the two part episode "Pregnancy" and "The Delivery". Dilbert [[MisterSeahorse gets pregnant with several different types of animal, human, and alien sperm, and has a baby.]]

** Oddly enough, one of the few times where Dilbert ''did'' genuinely screw up(in the episode "The Knack", where Dilbert accidentally knocks most of the communication satellites around Earth out of alignment), he is actually ''praised'' for it.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: An inverted example from the 'Prototype' episode: "Decapitate Dilbert, steal idea, 2 quarts milk, box of muesli..."

* CrazyPrepared: Wally, amazingly enough. As it turned out, he helped installed the company's mainframe, and secretly documented the programming in it to point out all of the code that would need to be altered to make it Y2K compliant. And he did all this ''long'' before anyone else had even considered the Y2K problem's existence.

The theme song was written by Danny Elfman, and inexplicably has the same melody as his opening theme for ''Film/ForbiddenZone''. (This was because it adapted from his theme for said film, without his involvement.)

** LampshadeHanging: "I knew I shouldn't have added that option."

* RalphWiggum: The Pointy-Haired Boss is very much this. It's not uncommon for other minor occurring characters to be this as well, particularly [[TakeThat anyone in marketing]].
** His intelligence does jump when it would be funny though, like when he suddenly stepped in and successfully looted the assets of a company Dilbert accidentally destroyed.

* WhatTheHellHero: Dilbert gets these a lot, even though the problems he's being called out for are caused more by the stupidity around him rather than his own ideas. A great example would be the Nirvana Company, who blamed Dilbert for destroying their company by suggesting that a Marketing Department be started, even though he was constantly trying to tell them that he ''wasn't suggesting it''.

* PlayingAgainstType: Catbert gives Jason Alexander an opportunity to play a character who isn't [[{{Seinfeld}} neurotic]], [[{{Aladdin}} hysterical]] or [[{{Duckman}} stupid]]. Evil, on the other hand...

The theme song was written by Danny Elfman, and inexplicably has the same melody as his opening theme for ''Film/ForbiddenZone''.

* PuttingOnTheReich: Team Lena in Episode 2 is a combination of this and a thinly veiled parody of The ChurchOfHappyology.

* FridgeLogic: Not one plot makes any coherent sense even in context, nor is it intended to.

* ButtMonkey: Asok the intern. Pretty much anyone who isn't Dogbert, Dilmom, or the Garbageman.

-->'''DilMom on tape:''' Yes, you are so predictable I can record my half of the conversation in advance.

Animated version of [[Comicstrip/{{Dilbert}} Scott Adams' cult comic]] that ran for two seasons, starring the voice of Daniel Stern as Dilbert, an engineer working for a soulless and bureaucratic corporation, underneath an incredibly thick-witted, [[Main/{{PointyHairedBoss}} pointy-haired boss]] (Larry Miller). The opposite of him in almost every way is his dog, Dogbert (Chris Elliott), a morally gray genius who constantly exploits Dilbert, Dilbert's company and everyone else with consummate ease.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Often by the Pointy Haired Boss and marketing people in general. One example is during a proposal for an underwater barbeque:

* PuttingOnTheReich: Team Lena in Episode 2 is a combination of this and a thinly veiled parody of The ChurchOfHappyology

* ShoutOut: To ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' in two different episodes

** Intrestingly enough, Dilbert is shown to be on the idealistic side of the scale.

* TakeThat: To a lot of things, obviously, but most prominently to marketing people. They are invariably portrayed as imbecilic [[JerkJock Jerk Jocks]] who make a business out of CompletelyMissingThePoint and stealing credit wherever possible. At one point, adding a marketing department to an idealistic company directly caused it to fall apart(literally, as in ''the building itself physically fell apart and burst into flames.'')

Animated version of [[Main/{{Dilbert}} Scott Adams' cult comic]] that ran for two seasons, starring the voice of Daniel Stern as Dilbert, an engineer working for a soulless and bureaucratic corporation, underneath an incredibly thick-witted, [[Main/{{PointyHairedBoss}} pointy-haired boss]] (Larry Miller). The opposite of him in almost every way is his dog, Dogbert (Chris Elliott), a morally gray genius who constantly exploits Dilbert, Dilbert's company and everyone else with consummate ease.