The guy who made your office cubicle feel like a sitcom is gone. Scott Adams, the cartoonist behind the legendary "Dilbert" strip, passed away yesterday, January 13, 2026. He was 68. Honestly, it’s a weird moment for a lot of people. Whether you loved him for his sharp satire of middle management or were completely put off by his late-career controversies, you can't deny he was a massive fixture in American culture.
His ex-wife, Shelly Miles, was the one who broke the news. She didn't do it through a sterile press release or a corporate tweet. Instead, she hopped on a livestream of his YouTube show, Real Coffee with Scott Adams, and told his followers that he was "not with us anymore." It felt intimate, raw, and very much in line with how Adams lived his final years—directly connected to his audience, for better or worse.
A Long Battle with the Same Disease as Biden
Adams didn't hide the fact that he was sick. Back in May 2025, he dropped a bombshell on his podcast. He told his listeners he had the exact same type of cancer as President Joe Biden: an aggressive form of prostate cancer. But in typical Adams fashion, he added a layer of political commentary, claiming he’d had it longer than the President "admitted" to having it.
By the end of 2025, the situation had turned grim. The cancer didn't stay put; it migrated to his bones and his spine. He spent his final months using a walker, but he kept recording. He kept talking. There’s something kinda haunting about the fact that his final message to the world was read on the same digital platform where he’d spent thousands of hours deconstructing the news of the day.
Why Scott Adams Still Matters
To understand why people are reacting so strongly to the death of Scott Adams, you have to go back to the 90s. Before the internet was the main way we consumed humor, "Dilbert" was everywhere. It was pinned to breakroom corkboards and taped to the sides of monitors in every Fortune 500 company.
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Adams was an engineer himself at Pacific Bell before he became a full-time cartoonist. He knew the soul-crushing reality of useless meetings, "synergy," and bosses who didn't understand the tech they were managing. Dilbert—with his curled red tie and mouthless face—became the patron saint of the overworked white-collar worker.
At its absolute peak, the strip was in 2,000 newspapers across 70 countries. That’s insane reach.
The Fall from Grace and the 2023 Cancellation
You can't talk about Adams without talking about the "cancellation." In February 2023, he went on a rant on his YouTube show that effectively nuked his mainstream career. He cited a poll from Rasmussen Reports and referred to Black Americans as a "hate group," advising white people to "get the hell away" from them.
The fallout was instant.
Major publications like The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and the entire USA Today Network dropped "Dilbert" overnight. His publisher scrapped an upcoming book. He went from being a household name to a pariah in the blink of an eye.
But here’s the thing: Adams didn’t care. Or at least, he pretended not to. He pivoted entirely to social media and subscription platforms. He leaned into his "canceled" status, becoming a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and a critic of what he called the "leftist fake news industry."
The Complex Legacy of a Cartoonist
Was he a genius? A provocateur? A man who lost his way? It depends on who you ask.
Some see him as a brilliant analyst of human persuasion. His books like Win Bigly argued that Trump was a "Master Persuader" using specific psychological techniques. Others saw him as a man who used his intellect to justify increasingly radical views.
In the final message read by his ex-wife, Adams said he had "an amazing life" and that he "donated" himself to the world in his later years. He urged people to "be useful." It’s a simple sentiment for a man whose life was anything but simple.
Other Losses: John Forté and the Rest
While Adams is dominating the headlines, he wasn't the only star we lost in this window. The music world is also mourning John Forté, the Grammy-nominated producer and rapper known for his work with The Fugees on the legendary album The Score. Forté was found dead at his home in Massachusetts at just 50 years old. Unlike Adams, whose death was the end of a long, public illness, Forté’s passing was sudden and, as of right now, unexplained.
It’s been a heavy week for entertainment.
How to Process the News
If you grew up with a Dilbert calendar on your desk, it’s okay to feel a bit of nostalgia, even if you didn't agree with the man Adams became. We live in a world where we often have to separate the art from the artist.
If you want to revisit his early work, many of the 90s-era "Dilbert" collections are still considered some of the best workplace satire ever written. If you were a fan of his later political commentary, his archives on YouTube and various podcast platforms remain a record of his "Real Coffee" era.
Moving forward, the conversation about Scott Adams will likely stay polarized. He wouldn't have had it any other way. He often said that being controversial was better than being boring. In that regard, he definitely succeeded.
To keep up with the developing memorials or any upcoming public services for Scott Adams or John Forté, you can follow major news outlets or check the official "Dilbert" social media channels, which are currently being managed by his estate.