2013-10-23
Explanation
The Joke
A man lying in a hammock with a woman muses philosophically about whether he is truly a "reasonable person who reaches their own conclusions" or whether his views are simply inherited from his culture. He wonders if his sense of morality is just a product of gender, race, and era -- beliefs that "would not be held by anyone who died more than 50 years ago." He questions whether his worldview is only possible because of historical developments he played no role in, and whether he should critically examine all his convictions.
He then reveals: "In his confession book, Rousseau said he found spanking 'profoundly erotic.'" He declares: "Look, I've come to that conclusion on my own." His partner asks, "Can we change topics now?"
The Humor
The comic sets up an earnest, thoughtful philosophical inquiry about moral relativism and whether our beliefs are truly our own or products of our environment. The reader expects some profound conclusion. Instead, the entire philosophical journey was just an elaborate setup for the man to justify his sexual kink by claiming he arrived at it independently, just like Rousseau. The deflation from serious epistemology to "I also find spanking hot" is the core joke. It also satirizes how people sometimes use philosophical reasoning to rationalize personal preferences rather than genuinely interrogating their beliefs.
References
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Genevan philosopher whose autobiographical work "Confessions" (published posthumously in 1782) did indeed include the admission that he found being spanked by his childhood caretaker to be arousing, which he described as shaping his romantic preferences for life. This is one of the most frequently cited passages from the "Confessions."
Votey
The votey shows a man saying "Look it up." -- encouraging the reader to verify the Rousseau fact, which is indeed real and well-documented in literary and philosophical scholarship.