The Dilbert Hole
The Dilbert Hole was a 17-piece comic strip created by Tristan Farnon of Leisuretown. The comic first appeared in 1996 under the title "A Comedy Crisis," was dispatched by Dilbert's e-lawyers, and was subsequently re-released in 1997 by rotten dot com.
—United Feature Syndicate, protecting their Dilbert Marks. | ||
Humble Beginnings
Sometime in 1996, aspiring webcomic artist Tristan Farnon gave Dilbert a celebrity makeover. Through blood sweat and tears, Tristan chopped up the original comics and re-lettered everything into toilet humor, homo-erotic escapades, and sexual harassment jokes. He then uploaded them to his virtually unknown website Leisuretown, where they went unnoticed for six months before receiving a legal threat from Dilbert's corporate overlords United Syndicate Group. Accompanying this legal threat was a personal note from Dilbert's creator Scott Adams.
—Scott Adams, Internet Tough Guy | ||
—Tristan Farnon, deploying logic. | ||
Despite the legal threats holding no merit due to the comics being a work of satire, Leisuretown complied and replaced the Dilbert characterization with stick figures. Fans and associates of the site were in an uproar, however despite their pleas, Tristan refused to fight against a billion dollar conglomerate over Alice giving Wally a blowjob.
—Tristan Farnon, understanding the internet. | ||
Rotten Restoration
Time had passed and no mirrors had surfaced. It appeared that the comic had been forever lost in the abyss of Web 1.0. However, Tristan was holding a trump card: He was directly affiliated with popular shock-site rotten dot com, and they were more than willing to stick it to the man. Once the Dilbert Hole's drama had died down, Leisuretown gave the collection to Rotten and it was featured on their front page. Rotten knew this would create a legal shitstorm, and had taken steps to ensure that the content and their site would remain online.
—Thomas Dell, owner and creator of rotten.com | ||
TAKE IT DOWN
While the strips had originally remained on Leisuretown for only a few months, it took two years for the pointy-haired lawyers to catch wind of the Dilbert Hole's resurfacing. Being that this was the late 90s, DMCA Takedowns were still in their infancy, so big-media relied on classic Cease and Desist letters to protect their valuable Dilbert Marks.
Rotten did not wish to go to internet court over Dilbert, so they replaced the original comics with scanned copies of the legal threats they had received from Baker & Hostelter LTD. However, the damage had already been done, and the comics had been mirrored across internets far and wide. Scott Adam's crack legal team issued a second warning to Rotten a month later, DEMANDING that all mentions of the word "Dilbert" be removed from their site. Rotten agreed, and changed the title of the page to "The D*****t Hole".
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April 9, 1999 (page 1) -
April 9, 1999 (page 2) -
May 27, 1999
—rotten's official response. | ||
Current Status
While the strips are no longer hosted on Rotten, numerous mirrors had been created and many still live today. Google searching "The Dilbert Hole" will turn up strips from the series, however the entire catalog can be viewed in it's original order here.
—Tristan Farnon's closing statements. | ||
Gallery
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Did You Know?
- That Scott Adams is a lolcow.
- That Scott Adams sockpuppets his fans.
- That Scott Adams thinks he's relevant.
- That Scott Adams lost the game.
- That Scott Adams knows CSIII.
- That The Dilbert Hole will never go away.
Related Articles
- Dilbert
- Jerkcity - The guy who made this site
- Rotten.com
- Webcomic
- Rule 34
- Lolsuit
- E-Lawyer
- Aspergers
- Unfunny
- Faggot
External Links
- Dilbert's Official Site
- The Dilbert Hole (Archive)
- Tristan Farnon's Leisuretown (Inactive)
- Interview with Farnon (Wayback Archive)
- Rotten dot com
- Rotten's first legal threat.
- Rotten's second legal threat.
- Rotten soliciting for mirrors.
 The Dilbert Hole is part of a series on Web 1.0 |
[ANCIENT HISTORY] Old Memes •
Celebs, h4x0rz, and Phreaks •
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Fun and Games •
Events •
Death of Web1.0
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