‘Dilbert’ Is Canceled but Cubicle Comedians Thrive, on TikTok

Mr. Thill added that content about mental health at work resonates with his audience — and that followers tend to share posts about work friends. “When you talk about your work bestie, they’re sending it to their work bestie,” he said.

Though cubicle comedy tends to focus on the indignities of life as a corporate underling, some corporations have started partnering with the creators that lampoon them.

Natalie Marshall, 25, who posts as @CorporateNatalie, parlayed her 492,000 TikTok followers and 473,000 Instagram followers into a job consulting with tech companies and doing sponsored posts for brands like Dell.

“While I’m making fun of work from home, @CorporateNatalie is incredibly brand friendly,” Ms. Marshall said. She added that many brands like to use humor to appear relatable to their audiences, and said that her own audience included millennial professionals with strong buying power.

Ross Pomerantz, 33, began posting as his character “Corporate Bro” after gathering inspiration from his time working in sales at Oracle. “I wanted to be the modern video version of Dilbert,” he said. But given the events of last week, he said, he now cringes at the comic.

Mr. Pomerantz now does speaking engagements for corporations, especially at sales events. Why would a company in a sector he lampoons invite him to speak? “Self-awareness wins these days,” he said. “People are so sick of the tone deaf, out of touch C.E.O.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/04/business/dilbert-tiktok-office-humor.html