I don’t follow them closely enough to know whether (or when) the underlying drawing may or may not have run previously, and with what dialog. But clearly they are having fun, with a “meta” flavor, with the idea of cartoonists making use of past work by substituting some elements with new content, especially dialog.
And some of the humor is in the failure to meet the criteria the big guy expresses. This is (is made to be) “too obvious” , and the art does not still work with the revised dialog.
The original:
Thanks, Pete! If that makes it from 2014, that would account for some differences in drawing style – same artist (there were others further back) but there have been revisions in the characters for instance.
Also clarified here is that it is Roy’s desk and workstation they are standing by; and Jay has gotten hoist by Roy’s protection scheme.
For one thing, nowadays Roy is thinner.
I always love a cartoonist who can make fun of themselves (a common theme in Pearls Before Swine). So I got a chuckle out of this. However, it took some time for me to figure out what was going on with the left guy. At first I was thinking there was a rooster there. And I’m still not sure what the red splotches are. Ketchup?
And the other question is why in the original is the left guy trying to get on the right guy’s computer? Yeah, most people use a password to protect their computer, but most people don’t try to get into their coworker’s computer either. So I don’t see where he has an excuse to question the right guy.
Good points, Mark M. The red paint or dye, along with Jay’s yellow hair, do create that rooster look. And as I already indicated, the red may be dye or paint that was part of the booby-trap.
Gocomics commenters on the 2014 appearance also were asking why Jay would be trying to log on to Roy’s computer. They didn’t really answer that, but did reference this Dilbert. And putting things together, maybe Jay was just checking that Roy was maintaining security discipline, and seeing Roy was not at his desk just stepped in to try jostling the mouse or tapping a key to make sure Roy had logged out or set it on lock.
When I was still a productive member of society, Megacorp would include in their emailings to us instructional ethics examples. One had someone leave for the day without logging off his computer. Another guy jumped on it, rooted around, found an open banking session in a browser and proceeded to transfer some money to his girlfriend. End result was termination (of the employment sort). I was a little surprised that they didn’t do something with the other guy to reinforce the rules on properly securing your workstation, and perhaps they did but didn’t mention it.
Well, when I was a productive member of society, Ed’s Pretty Good Data Processing Shoppe had a company wide policy that if you were out of the building ( lunch, home, whatever) your desktop was cleared, and drawers and cabinets were locked. This was mostly aimed at consultants working at customer sites, and since we were a satellite support group with no customers in the building, enforcement was pretty lax. That is, until we moved into the 20th century ( somewhere around 1998 😏) and everyone was supplied with a laptop and docking station. The rule became, if you are not in the building, the laptop is either with you, or locked in your desk. So, one weekend an employee comes into work, sees multiple laptops sitting out on desks, and takes upon him/herself to gather them all up and hide them in a storage closet. Management was LIVID!!! …at whoever it was who did this. I don’t think anyone got their hand slapped for leaving their computer out. They never found out who did it, even after lengthy investigations and personnel interviews, probably because they made no bones about the fact whoever it was would be fired on the spot.
I thought the red stain was blood, and that in the comic he had been casually mortally wounded. Other than that, I had nothin’.
I was, however, amused by the obvious re-use of the panel.
By the time the accounting firm I worked got to the point where a computer was being on site/at clients it was down to just me.
The accountant I had worked for had us make adding machine tapes while at clients using the non add (or number) key for the account number to be entered and plus entries to be debits and credits to be minuses. These were sent to a computer company where someone would enter the data into a mainframe and send us back printouts (the accountant’s wife was a principle at the company). Tax time we would fill in the info on forms and send them to a (different) computer company where, again, someone would enter the data into the mainframe and send us back the printed versions of the returns.
When my dad and I took over the practice we went back to old school – hand written spreadsheet summaries for books and hand done tax returns.
I continued with same after Dad died until the world of Quickbooks, self- preparation of tax returns on home computers, and laptop computers came along.
Back when I was 12 years old I started actually working in accounting (for no pay) for my dad adding up payroll books of his clients for him so he could prepare monthly, quarterly and annual payroll tax forms. (Before that I played with old blank tax forms for fun.) I still do tax returns for the daughter of the man who owned the business which was the first one whose payroll I added up the payroll books for – the business is long gone. I do her return for $10 as she is only filing as she is entitled to an $60 refund from NYC for her property taxes as a senior and I figure that covers the cost (if I charged her a regular fee she would lose money on the return – she does not have to file other than this refund). Robert disagrees and says I should charge her more – after all this time and the length of the business relationship between the families, I figure it is fair.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I don’t follow them closely enough to know whether (or when) the underlying drawing may or may not have run previously, and with what dialog. But clearly they are having fun, with a “meta” flavor, with the idea of cartoonists making use of past work by substituting some elements with new content, especially dialog.
And some of the humor is in the failure to meet the criteria the big guy expresses. This is (is made to be) “too obvious” , and the art does not still work with the revised dialog.
The original:
Thanks, Pete! If that makes it from 2014, that would account for some differences in drawing style – same artist (there were others further back) but there have been revisions in the characters for instance.
Also clarified here is that it is Roy’s desk and workstation they are standing by; and Jay has gotten hoist by Roy’s protection scheme.
For one thing, nowadays Roy is thinner.
I always love a cartoonist who can make fun of themselves (a common theme in Pearls Before Swine). So I got a chuckle out of this. However, it took some time for me to figure out what was going on with the left guy. At first I was thinking there was a rooster there. And I’m still not sure what the red splotches are. Ketchup?
And the other question is why in the original is the left guy trying to get on the right guy’s computer? Yeah, most people use a password to protect their computer, but most people don’t try to get into their coworker’s computer either. So I don’t see where he has an excuse to question the right guy.
Good points, Mark M. The red paint or dye, along with Jay’s yellow hair, do create that rooster look. And as I already indicated, the red may be dye or paint that was part of the booby-trap.
Gocomics commenters on the 2014 appearance also were asking why Jay would be trying to log on to Roy’s computer. They didn’t really answer that, but did reference this Dilbert. And putting things together, maybe Jay was just checking that Roy was maintaining security discipline, and seeing Roy was not at his desk just stepped in to try jostling the mouse or tapping a key to make sure Roy had logged out or set it on lock.
When I was still a productive member of society, Megacorp would include in their emailings to us instructional ethics examples. One had someone leave for the day without logging off his computer. Another guy jumped on it, rooted around, found an open banking session in a browser and proceeded to transfer some money to his girlfriend. End result was termination (of the employment sort). I was a little surprised that they didn’t do something with the other guy to reinforce the rules on properly securing your workstation, and perhaps they did but didn’t mention it.
Well, when I was a productive member of society, Ed’s Pretty Good Data Processing Shoppe had a company wide policy that if you were out of the building ( lunch, home, whatever) your desktop was cleared, and drawers and cabinets were locked. This was mostly aimed at consultants working at customer sites, and since we were a satellite support group with no customers in the building, enforcement was pretty lax. That is, until we moved into the 20th century ( somewhere around 1998 😏) and everyone was supplied with a laptop and docking station. The rule became, if you are not in the building, the laptop is either with you, or locked in your desk. So, one weekend an employee comes into work, sees multiple laptops sitting out on desks, and takes upon him/herself to gather them all up and hide them in a storage closet. Management was LIVID!!! …at whoever it was who did this. I don’t think anyone got their hand slapped for leaving their computer out. They never found out who did it, even after lengthy investigations and personnel interviews, probably because they made no bones about the fact whoever it was would be fired on the spot.
I thought the red stain was blood, and that in the comic he had been casually mortally wounded. Other than that, I had nothin’.
I was, however, amused by the obvious re-use of the panel.
By the time the accounting firm I worked got to the point where a computer was being on site/at clients it was down to just me.
The accountant I had worked for had us make adding machine tapes while at clients using the non add (or number) key for the account number to be entered and plus entries to be debits and credits to be minuses. These were sent to a computer company where someone would enter the data into a mainframe and send us back printouts (the accountant’s wife was a principle at the company). Tax time we would fill in the info on forms and send them to a (different) computer company where, again, someone would enter the data into the mainframe and send us back the printed versions of the returns.
When my dad and I took over the practice we went back to old school – hand written spreadsheet summaries for books and hand done tax returns.
I continued with same after Dad died until the world of Quickbooks, self- preparation of tax returns on home computers, and laptop computers came along.
Back when I was 12 years old I started actually working in accounting (for no pay) for my dad adding up payroll books of his clients for him so he could prepare monthly, quarterly and annual payroll tax forms. (Before that I played with old blank tax forms for fun.) I still do tax returns for the daughter of the man who owned the business which was the first one whose payroll I added up the payroll books for – the business is long gone. I do her return for $10 as she is only filing as she is entitled to an $60 refund from NYC for her property taxes as a senior and I figure that covers the cost (if I charged her a regular fee she would lose money on the return – she does not have to file other than this refund). Robert disagrees and says I should charge her more – after all this time and the length of the business relationship between the families, I figure it is fair.