"My name is Plop. It's the first sound my mom heard when I was born three months prematurely."

"Plop, the Hairless Elbonian" (now reduced to simply "The Hairless Elbonian") is/was an experimental comic strip from the brain of Scott Adams. It's a spinoff of "Dilbert," and it's all about a hairless native of the fictional country of Elbonia going around being convinced he's different because he's been left on Earth by aliens. He has a pet pig named Smokey, who talks and has buck teeth. His mom has a beard. Other than that, there's nothing too remarkable about it.

"The experimental aspect is that I blatantly 'borrowed' every successful cartooning technique I've ever seen (except for good artwork) and threw it into the mix. In other words, it's an engineered comic strip devoid of any artistic integrity whatsoever."

Scott Adams touted the strip on the DNRC newsletter with a note pointing out that now (November 2001) was probably not a good time to introduce a new comic strip featuring people who looked like the Taliban, so the strip would likely be shelved permanently regardless of feedback. Personally, I think it's just as well. Elbonia was always an oblique sort of joke about a country full of people even stupider than Dilbert's boss (including the title character), perpetually surrounded by mud and forced to live on the trailing edge of technology. If you're not a "Dilbert" regular, there's nothing in the strip for you to relate to. A total and utter lack of context has a way of causing jokes to bomb.

But you can decide for yourself. The twenty-eight strips he has created are online at http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/plop/ for all to see.