Bayesian
Explanation
The Joke
A woman declares "I'm a strict Bayesian!" Her companion asks what she means -- does she use Bayesian statistics? She clarifies: "No, I mean sometimes I change my opinion, and sometimes I do stuff, like it's the result of math." Her companion points out that this just sounds like normal reasoning plus unwarranted confidence. In the final panel, she responds: "I am adjusting my priors about you, sir."
The joke is that the woman is using the label "Bayesian" to describe what is essentially just... thinking. Changing your mind when you encounter new information and making decisions is not uniquely Bayesian -- it is basic human cognition. But by branding it with a fancy statistical framework, she gives herself an air of intellectual sophistication.
The Humor
The humor targets a real phenomenon in certain intellectual circles where people adopt the "Bayesian" identity as though it were a philosophy of life rather than a mathematical framework. The comic satirizes how invoking Bayesian reasoning has become a way to make ordinary cognitive processes sound more rigorous and scientific than they actually are. The final panel delivers the punchline perfectly: when challenged, the woman does not engage with the criticism but instead retreats further into Bayesian jargon ("adjusting my priors"), demonstrating exactly the kind of superficial use of terminology she was just called out for.
References
Bayesian statistics is a branch of statistics based on Bayes' theorem, which describes how to update the probability of a hypothesis as new evidence is encountered. The "Bayesian" identity label became particularly popular in the rationalist community associated with LessWrong and related online forums.