2013-05-03
Explanation
The comic is titled "What's the Use of Existentialism?" and presents a scenario where a woman is tied to a post, about to face a firing squad. She makes a joke, asking the firing squad, "If I want to escape, would you give me a shot?" -- a pun on "give me a shot" meaning both "let me try" and "shoot me." The comic then poses the existentialist question: "But you should ask yourself -- would you be any better off watching the guns?" The final panel shows the woman looking nervously at the firing squad from behind.
The comic is a surprisingly effective illustration of core existentialist philosophy. Existentialism, particularly as articulated by thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, holds that humans must create their own meaning in an absurd and indifferent universe. Camus specifically explored this through the metaphor of execution in The Stranger and discussed the absurd in The Myth of Sisyphus. The comic's point is that if death is inevitable (as it is for everyone, not just those facing firing squads), you have a choice in how to face it: you can spend your remaining time in terror, staring at what's coming, or you can choose to make a joke and assert your freedom in the only way left available to you. The punchline is that existentialism's "use" is precisely this -- it doesn't change your circumstances, but it changes your relationship to them. The woman's bad pun is an act of radical freedom.