Of course, in the world of corporate silliness Dilbert inhabits, characters are far more likely to flaunt their idiocy than any body part, and are aggressive mostly in their incompetence. Which is just how the more than 150 million daily readers who’ve made ““Dilbert’’ the fastest-growing syndicated comic strip like it. In bringing the travails of his lovable techno-nerd to UPN, Adams, along with ““Seinfeld’’ and ““Mad About You’’ alumnus Larry Charles, who serves as the show’s executive producer, enjoys the blessing of a built-in audience–as well as the curse of trying to live up to the beloved original. Fortunately, Dilbert, which premiEres Monday, successfully expands its hero’s universe from four scant panels to a half-hour, and remains faithful to the strip’s winning sense of the absurd.

In the series’s debut, cubicle-dwelling Dilbert’s thankless task is to dream up a name for his employer’s new ““flagship product.’’ Never mind that nobody’s given any thought to what that product might be. When Dilbert (voiced here by actor Daniel Stern) points out this seemingly ass-backwards approach, the dreaded Pointy-Haired Boss (Larry Miller) rebukes him: ““Use some common sense, son, if you don’t know something’s name, how do you know what to build?’’ Responds Dilbert: ““Do you think the guy who invented the mousepad started with the name?’’ As always, though, illogic prevails, and Dilbert, along with familiar colleagues Alice (Kathy Griffin) and Wally (Gordon Hunt), fumbles along until the boardroom brass are improbably appeased. Dilbert’s wry, world-weary pet, Dogbert (the apt Chris Elliott), and his needling mother, Dilmom (Jackie Hoffman), lend invaluable assistance along the way.

This show is not the first attempt to bring Dilbert to the tube. Two years ago Fox commissioned an unsuccessful pilot, using actors rather than animation. Not a good idea. ““There was lots of pressure to make Dilbert a good-looking leading man,’’ says Adams. ““You don’t have to worry about that with a cartoon.’’ You do, however, need to worry about casting voices, an endeavor that both Adams and Charles say was agonizing. ““You hear voices in your head, but it’s like trying to explain a color,’’ says Charles. ““It was a very elusive process.’’ The results, though, are satisfying–as is the animation, including a particularly dynamic title sequence. ““Dilbert’s’’ biggest handicap may be that you can’t tack up a TV show in your cubicle.