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[s_stabeler]

Antina wasn't funny, whatever other problems she may have had.

I thought Tina was still around, though, just not used often. Then again, I can't actually remember when she, or any female other than Alice and whoever Dilbert's trying to get a date with, last appeared either.

it sounds like the humor with Antina was more meta- there were complaints that a new character- Tina- was a stereotype (personally, I'd say [B]all[/B the characters in Dilbert are stereotypes- it's where the humour in the strip comes from in the first place.) so he created what was basically a stereotypical "non-stereotypical" female character. the humour is essentially Adams pointing out that even if Tina is a stereotypical female, she's not the only stereotype character in the strip- Dilbert's the stereotypical clueless employee, for example- so Tina being a stereotypical female is pretty much irrelevant.

To make the point clearer: I always rolled my eyes at complaints about Jeremy Clarkson insulting a particular group of people on Top Gear. He did it to everyone, and it's fairly obvious that he doesn't actually believe the insults. (granted, that doesn't mean I disagreed with the BBC firing him- he had a legitimate complaint about an expected hot meal being unavailable, but to punch someone over it was out of line.)

[EricKei]

personally, I'd say all the characters in Dilbert are stereotypes- it's where the humour in the strip comes from in the first place

Oh, yes, absolutely. The vast majority of characters in any form of entertainment ultimately boil down to stereotypes, simply because people feel more comfortable dealing with the familiar -- and people tend to consider their own stereotypical impressions to be "familiar." Same goes for the situations, though Dilbert has an advantage in having drawn from Adams' own years of small-cog-in-a-big-business experience, as well as those of many others, even if they are exaggerated in most cases. They still feel familiar. E.g., not everybody has worked in a place that has regular meetings, but everyone knows what it's like to have had to listen to someone else drone on about something which you may or may not give a damn about for an interminable length of time.

...Speaking of which...Next?