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Explanation
The Joke
A woman asks her husband why they have not had sex in six weeks. He blames philosophy, specifically citing Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher, who taught that you should not admire your wife's beauty so that you will not be angry if she is unfaithful. The husband explains that as a recognition that he cannot control externals but can control his will, he has decided his wife is "a great big uggo." In other words, he has deliberately convinced himself his wife is unattractive as a Stoic exercise in emotional detachment.
The wife asks if Epictetus was ever married. The husband admits it is not known, but that Epictetus apparently got together with a woman late in life only because he needed help with childcare — hardly a ringing endorsement of his romantic philosophy. When the wife asks if the husband is familiar with structural sexism, he dismisses it as "an external, so only weak-willed people would care," weaponizing Stoic philosophy to dodge any criticism.
The Humor
The comedy comes from a man using ancient Stoic philosophy as an elaborate excuse for being a terrible husband. He cherry-picks Epictetus's teachings about emotional detachment from externals and applies them in the most self-serving and insulting way possible — telling his wife he has willed himself to find her ugly. The biographical detail about Epictetus only pairing up with a woman for childcare help perfectly undercuts the husband's philosophical authority. The final panel delivers the knockout: when confronted with a legitimate critique (structural sexism), the husband uses the same Stoic framework to dismiss it entirely, revealing that his "philosophy" is really just an infinitely flexible tool for avoiding accountability.
References
Epictetus (c. 50-135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher who was born into slavery and later gained his freedom. His philosophy, recorded by his student Arrian in the Discourses and the Enchiridion, emphasizes the distinction between things within our control (our own thoughts and attitudes) and things outside our control (externals, including other people's behavior and physical circumstances). The teaching about not admiring a wife's beauty is a real paraphrase of Stoic ideas found in his works. Historical accounts do suggest Epictetus lived most of his life unmarried and may have taken in a woman and child late in life primarily for practical reasons.