death-3
Explanation
The Joke
The comic shows a professor (identified in the caption as "Professor Thompson") giving what appears to be an academic lecture about a culture with a "radical view of death." He describes how this group recognizes death as just another aspect of existence, believes that the days we do not live are not to be lamented, and that the days we do have should be celebrated as a gift from fortune. He then quotes Marcus Aurelius: "Despise not death, but welcome it, for nature wills it like all else."
The caption at the bottom delivers the punchline: "Professor Thompson explains why the only ethical food is Stoic philosophers." The entire lecture was not an academic discussion of philosophy -- it was a justification for eating Stoic philosophers. Because the Stoics genuinely embraced death and viewed it as natural and not to be feared, the professor argues they are the only people you can ethically consume, since they would not object to being killed and eaten.
The Humor
The comic takes Stoic philosophy about accepting death with equanimity and follows it to an absurd logical conclusion. If the Stoics truly believe death should be welcomed rather than feared, then by their own philosophy they should have no objection to being someone's dinner. The joke works because the setup reads as a perfectly normal academic presentation -- the kind of dry philosophical lecture you might hear in any university -- before the caption recontextualizes everything in a hilariously unexpected direction. It also plays on debates about ethical food sourcing (veganism, animal welfare, etc.) by proposing a darkly comedic "solution" based on the consent of the consumed.
References
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) was a Roman Emperor and one of the most famous Stoic philosophers. The quote used in the comic is from his Meditations, a collection of personal writings on Stoic philosophy. Stoicism, founded in Athens around 300 BC, emphasized accepting the natural order of things, including death, as part of living a virtuous life.