2013-01-09
Explanation
In this comic, a couple is in bed, apparently engaged in a roleplay scenario where he is a "coach" and she is a "sexy gymnast." However, the man suddenly has an existential crisis mid-roleplay: "Wait. You mean I'm not actually a coach and you're not actually a sexy gymnast? I'm just playing a character? I exist for the duration of some sordid sex game, and then I fade into non-existence as my former persona returns? Oh God I'm nothing! Just a character! Hahaha! Nothing! Nothing! Hahahaha!" The caption below reads: "Never act out a sex fantasy with an existentialist."
The joke takes the mundane concept of bedroom roleplay and filters it through existentialist philosophy. The man treats his temporary adopted persona with the same gravity that existentialist thinkers like Sartre or Camus applied to questions of human existence and meaning. The character he is playing becomes a metaphor for existential dread -- a being that is created, briefly exists, and then ceases to be, all for someone else's purposes. His descent into hysterical laughter echoes the absurdist response to meaninglessness. The caption's deadpan advice format ("Never act out a sex fantasy with an existentialist") treats this as a common, foreseeable problem rather than the uniquely bizarre meltdown it actually is, adding another layer of humor.