Bob Bastard

Featured in the Dilbert episode "Testing", Bob Bastard was a legend among those working in the company, a ruthless testing overseer who takes joy in crushing and failing the products that are tested under his watch.

Past
At one point, Bob was a simple test engineer who desired to get a date with some of his female coworkers. However, he was rejected by a woman who resembled Alice, which drove him to fall back into a conveniently-placed vat of "disfiguring acid". Donning the costume, he became the bitter and sadistic masked man who took pleasure in crushing people's dreams. He was then desirable by the female coworkers who once rejected him and manipulated them as long as he could (which is echoed with Alice in the plot of the episode).

Role
Bob Bastard first appears with coffee for Dilbert and his associates, including Alice who becomes smitten with the charismatic masked man (and gets annoyed by Dilbert slurping his coffee). He is shown to take a lot of pleasure in testing the Gruntmaster 6000 to ridiculous extremes (such as forcing it to undergo a heat test one degree hotter than Dilbert's calculation) and putting more anxiety on Dilbert as each testing fails. Despite failing the group's project, Alice becomes more attracted and Wally becomes more of a devoted fan to Bob Bastard, even wearing a mask and cape like his own. In the meantime, Bob manipulates the emotionally vulnerable Alice into giving him money, her car, and even her own clothing and shoes while leaving her stranded at the parking lot. When called out on it, Alice accuses Dilbert of just being petty.

Dilbert goes into Bob Bastard's lair and inquires as to why he turned into a sadistic monster. He gives the lecture about his past, claiming that society made him into a sadist. However, the meeting proves beneficial when Dilbert notices Bob Bastard slurping his coffee. At the final round of testing, Bob Bastard conducts an "asteroid-crash simulation" test using a jet rocket to force an asteroid collision with the Gruntmaster 6000. Dogbert, who joined NASA and made off with Dilbert's laser earlier in the episode, is contacted by Dilbert to foil Bob Bastard's final test using Dilbert's laser to break up the asteroid.

Determined to destroy the Gruntmaster 6000 and devastate Dilbert, Bob Bastard directs the jet rocket to collide. Dilbert tries to move the Gruntmaster out of harm's way but can't without Alice's help. However, Alice is convinced to help Dilbert when a live camera feed into the rocket shows Bob Bastard not only slurping but openly saying that he gets pleasure from doing it because Alice hates it. The Gruntmaster 6000 out of the way, Bob Bastard crashes into the target range. Wounded, Alice demands Bob to reveal the location of her car. Following this, it can be assumed that Bob Bastard possibly lost his popularity and influence.